Trump Admin Sues California to Block Oil Drilling Setback Rule

A 2022 state law bars oil and gas development activities within 3,200 feet of ’sensitive' locations, including homes, schools, and hospitals.

Oil pumps operate in the Los Angeles area on July 30, 2025. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

The Trump administration is suing California over a law that requires oil and gas drilling sites to be kept more than half a mile away from homes and other locations deemed “sensitive.”

The lawsuit, filed on Jan. 14, challenges California’s Senate Bill 1137. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the measure in 2022, but it only took full effect in mid-2024 after an oil industry-backed referendum seeking to repeal it was withdrawn.

The law bars oil and gas development activities within 3,200 feet of “sensitive receptors,” including homes, schools, hospitals, and “any building housing a business that is open to the public,” with the stated goal of protecting residents and children from air pollution and other hazards linked to drilling operations. It also imposes new requirements on existing wells within 3,200 feet of sensitive sites, including noise limits and a requirement to develop a “leak detection and response plan” by 2025.

While Newsom has hailed the law’s implementation as a victory over “Big Oil,” the Trump administration called it an unconstitutional attempt to interfere with how the federal government manages its own assets.

The lawsuit was brought by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on behalf of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, which issues leases to develop oil, gas, and coal resources on federal lands.

In its complaint, the DOJ contends that by prohibiting new fossil fuel development on federal lands that fall within the 3,200-foot “health protection zones,” California “unlawfully seeks to dictate whether, how, and under what conditions the United States may carry out federally authorized fossil fuel development on its own lands.”

According to Attorney General Pam Bondi, the law would “knock out about one-third of all federally authorized oil and gas leases in California.”

“This is yet another unconstitutional and radical policy from Gavin Newsom that threatens our country’s energy independence and makes energy more expensive for the American people,” Bondi said in a statement.

The legal challenge is part of the Trump administration’s broader push to boost domestic energy production and reduce reliance on foreign energy imports.

In April 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order titled “Protecting American Energy From State Overreach,” calling out California, Vermont, and New York for imposing what he called “burdensome” policies on fossil fuel production to advance their climate agenda.

“These State laws and policies weaken our national security and devastate Americans by driving up energy costs for families coast-to-coast, despite some of these families not living or voting in States with these crippling policies,” the president declared in the order.

Newsom’s office said that the law requiring setbacks is necessary to safeguard Californians’ health.

“The Trump administration just sued California for keeping oil wells away from elementary schools, homes, daycares, hospitals, and parks. Think about that,“ a spokesperson for the governor said in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times. ”SB 1137 creates a science-based buffer zone so kids can go to school, families can live in their homes, and communities can exist without breathing toxic fumes that cause asthma, birth defects, and cancer.”