“No fracking in my home” reads the bright orange sign held by Javier Cruz as he and his fellow community members fast outside the Kern County Board of Supervisors office in Bakersfield, California.
In the tradition of Cesar E. Chavez’s last fast, residents of Kern County in California’s Central Valley are fasting again for their dignity and their children’s future – drawing attention to the environmental health issues they experience due to fracking and oil extraction.
Led by Kern County Community Residents, the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment (CRPE), and Committee for a Better Shafter, the fasting hopes to call attention to the upcoming County Board of Supervisors meeting on November 9th where members will decide on a proposed zoning ordinance that would fast track oil and gas drilling for the next 25 years without adequate health protections.
If passed, this ordinance would promote fracking and drilling at the expense of community health, safe food, and the environment – while continuing to allow more fossil fuels to be burned at the expense of climate change and public health.
Residents expect the County to approve the ordinance, but hope that their actions will call attention to the County’s unwillingness to protect its people from the environmental health impacts of oil and gas drilling.
“We want to send a clear message to the Kern County officials: it’s time to start protecting the community and not the oil industry,” said Juan Flores, a Community Organizer with CRPE.
For too long, communities in Kern County have disproportionately borne the brunt of California’s oil and fracking agenda. More than 290,000 residents in Kern County live within one mile of an oil or gas well – most of whom are people of color that are already without clean water or clean air due to decades of extraction and industry.
Kern County is ground zero for fracking and oil extraction in California making this struggle a symbolic one in the fight to ban harmful extraction techniques such as fracking. Over 75% of the state’s oil production and 95% of its fracking happens in Kern – which makes it the highest oil-producing county in the U.S.
The residents of Kern County are joining together to oppose the ordinance and have asked people from around the state to stand with them as they take a stand against Big Oil during Monday’s meeting. People from all over the state have committed to show up to the meeting in solidarity. Learn more and sign up to join here.
Residents have collected thousands of petitions and are delivering them to the Board of Supervisors daily, and will continue to fast now through Monday. Community members hope that a show of solidarity from allies all throughout California will amplify their message and send a signal to Governor Brown that the state is watching.
For media inquires on this story contact Juan Flores, Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, 661-709-2292, [email protected]