Community organizer Pete Woiwode was walking to meet a friend at a street festival near downtown Oakland in November when a signature collector approached him and asked if he wanted to sign a petition to lower gas prices.
But Woiwode said reading the petition made him realize it was actually a referendum to strike down SB 1137, a state law passed in September to ban new oil and gas wells within 3,200 feet of schools, homes and hospitals.
As soon as he rejected the claim that the petition was about lowering gasoline prices, the signature collector relented, Woiwode recalled. “He was like, ‘Look man, they’re paying me a lot of signing money to do this. I know I don’t agree with this, but I have to have this job. I need you to sign this petition. Will you?’” he said.
Woiwode said no. “I’m not going to actively subvert democracy,” he told The Associated Press.
This didn’t just happen to Woiwode. Several California residents who spoke to the AP allege they were misled by signature collectors over the past two months as the Stop the Energy Shutdown campaign sought to gather enough signatures to win a referendum on the 2024 state ballot to strike down SB 1137.
Among them was a man in Oildale, California, in oil-rich Kern County, who said a petitioner told him that drilling near neighborhoods has no effect on human health. Another man, in Los Angeles, said a petitioner falsely told him the referendum would ban oil and gas drilling next to schools and hospitals.
SB 1137, signed into law by California Gov. Gavin Newsom in September, was hailed by environmental justice advocates who had been pushing for years for this regulation to reduce air pollution in poor communities and communities of color.
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But days after the bill passed, Nielsen Merksamer, a law firm that specializes in ballot measures, submitted a referendum strike down SB 1137 on behalf of Jerome Reedy, board member of the California Independent Petroleum Association. That association has opposed various state and local measures to regulate oil and gas drilling, including bans and phased closures in Los Angeles County and the city of Los Angeles.
The Stop the Energy Shutdown campaign started collecting signatures. Last week, advertisement he had raised nearly a million, well above the roughly 630,000 needed to qualify the measure for the 2024 state election.
These are now going through certification with the Secretary of State’s office. If enough are certified and the referendum qualifies for the ballot, SB 1137 will not become law in January. It will be suspended until after the referendum.
Allegations of misinformation abound in the #California oil petition drive. #fossil fuels #oil #gas #disinformation
It is unclear what the Secretary of State will do about the alleged use of misinformation by signature collectors. Joe Kocurek, a spokesman for the office, confirmed that he received several complaints alleging misinformation, but declined to share other details, citing an “ongoing or potential investigation.”
Rock Zierman, executive director of the California Independent Petroleum Association, told the AP in a statement that “signature collectors were given explicit talking points about how SB 1137 increases the state’s reliance on foreign oil, which it is exempt from our strict environmental and labor laws.”
PCI Consulting, the company that managed the petition drive, responded to a call from the AP on Tuesday and took a message for someone to call it back, but did not.
Mary-Beth Moylan, an academic associate dean and professor at the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law, has studied California ballot initiatives for nearly 20 years. Since 2003, she has overseen and edited the California Initiative Review, a magazine that reviews ballot measures before each election.
“A lot of times,” he said, “the people collecting the signatures don’t really know what they’re doing. They don’t know what their referendum is really about.”
Moylan said the Supreme Court rulings prevent states from requiring signature collectors to volunteer or be informed about a petition.
“It is difficult…to crack down on misinformation and disinformation in the signature-gathering process,” he said, noting that the millions of dollars spent on petition drives do not encourage petitioners to be “thoughtful or deliberative.” ” when communicating with residents
The Last Chance Alliance, a California-based climate action group made up of more than 900 public health, environmental justice, climate and labor organizations from around the world, heard that California residents were receiving misinformation from signature collectors and they contacted the AP with names of people who said they were misled. The AP spoke to six residents who told the Last Chance Alliance this had happened to them. Five said they filed complaints with the Secretary of State’s office, and the other said he was preparing to file one.
Woiwode said he was “frustrated” and “appalled” by his experiences with the petitioners, in part because he is a community organizer and manager of Reclaim Our Power, an Oakland-based organization that works for communities of color and poor communities. have access to clean energy. . In other words, he works in opposition to the fossil fuel companies.
Ilonka Zlatar, president of the climate action nonprofit 350 Sacramento, was on her way to buy Halloween candy at a grocery store when she saw the unattended table with signs urging residents to support the ban on oil emissions. and gas near schools and hospitals and stop gas prices from rising to $10 a gallon. She said that seeing the “blatant lies” on the billboards was “infuriating” and that she included photos of herself with her complaint to the state.
Jesús Alonso, the Oildale man, said he was upset to hear the petitioner say that the drilling in the neighborhood did not affect his health, considering that there are days when he has to keep his two children at home and not go to school if the air quality is bad enough.
Residents and environmental advocates say the stakes are high on whether the referendum qualifies for the ballot.
California Department of Conservation announced on monday that is proposing emergency regulations along the lines of the drilling restrictions in SB 1137. The California Division of Geological Energy Management is adopting regulations that would block permit approvals for new oil and gas wells within 3,200 feet of the schools as of January 1, 2023.
Environmentalists worry that the regulations they worked hard for will still stand if the referendum qualifies for the ballot. And they fear that would open a window for oil and gas companies to obtain permits for new oil and gas wells within the 3,200-foot radius.
On December 13, a coalition of California-based environmental groups sent a letter Governor Newsom and Uduak-Joe Ntuk, supervisor of the Division of Geological Energy Management, urging the state to issue a moratorium on all permits for new oil and gas wells within the 3,200-foot radius outlined in SB 1137.
“The oil industry is…spending millions to try to dismantle the hard-won protections in SB 1137 through a referendum,” the letter states. “Therefore, it is more important than ever that the state intervene to protect frontline communities and the climate by seeking state approval for these dangerous oil and gas projects.”