Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration will reportedly head to trial April 1 with a whistleblower who claims he was ordered to illegally reject oil-well drilling permits.
Uduak-Joe Ntuk, the former head of the California Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM), alleged that he was “forced and coerced to resign” from his position nine days after filing a complaint with the state on January 4, 2023, National Review reported.
BREAKING: Ex-California Oil Official Says Newsom Administration Pressured Him to Illegally Withhold Drilling Permits https://t.co/GuNBz2KHkJ
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) March 27, 2024
Newsom’s administration allegedly demanded that Ntuk stop issuing new oil-well drilling permits “without statutory authority or regulations,” according to the former CalGEM head’s lawsuit filed in Sept. 2023, National Review reported.
Ntuk said he defied the order of Newsom’s administration to enforce S.B. 1137, which was placed on hold until an upcoming referendum vote in Nov. 2024. The law, signed by Newsom on Sept. 16, 2022, prevented new wells from being drilled within 3,200 feet of homes, schools and other “sensitive” locations, according to the outlet. (RELATED: ‘She Is Never Here’: Residents Of AOC’s District Blast NYC’s Crime Wave, Migrant Crisis)
Pumping Jacks at the Chevron section of the Kern River Oil Field near Bakersfield, California on June 24, 2015.(Photo by MARK RALSTON / AFP) (Photo by MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 14: U.S. President Joe Biden (C) talks with California Governor Gavin Newson (L) and his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom (R) after arriving at San Francisco International Airport ahead of the APEC summit on November 14, 2023 in San Francisco, California. The APEC summit is being held in San Francisco and runs through November 17. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Ntuk claimed he was “directed by the governor’s office to continue to implement S.B. 1137 even after [its] qualifying for the November 2024 ballot” after senior California officials reportedly met with environmental activists, according to the outlet.
Ntuk said he was told to cite the referendum’s verification process to justify the stoppage of issuing permits, the outlet reported. However, the former CalGEM head “felt that he did not have the legal or constitutional authority” to prevent oil-well drilling permits from being issued statewide.
A morning walker approaches a pumpjack at the 1921-built Alamitos No. 1 Oil Well in Signal Hill, California on October 21, 2019. – The 2.25 square mile town of Signal Hill, sits within the Long Beach Oil Field, where oil production began after discovery in 1919. (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 13: California Governor Gavin Newsom (C) speaks as Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (L) listens at a press conference near the closed I-10 elevated freeway following a large pallet fire, which occurred Saturday at a storage yard beneath the freeway, on November 13, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. Engineers have been assessing the extent of the damage and it remains unknown how long the freeway, which is a major commuter artery through the downtown area, will remain closed and complicate traffic for the city. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – FEBRUARY 10: (L-R) Gavin Newsom, Sebastian Maniscalco and Lana Gomez attend Michael Rubin’s 2024 Fanatics Super Bowl Party at the Marquee Nightclub at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas on February 10, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Rich Polk/Getty Images for Fanatics)
At the time, Ntuk said he was resigning in Jan. 2023 to focus on his family, National Review noted. The whistleblower’s attorney, Jamon Hicks, has since revealed that Ntuk only made that excuse out of concern of being “blacklisted if he did not abide by what he was instructed to do.”