California’s top oil regulator quits after 17 months on the job
California’s top oil regulator announced his resignation Monday after 17 months as head of the embattled agency, including a criticized episode in which he directed state workers to investigate the oil and gas potential of Gov. Jerry Brown’s family ranch.
Steve Bohlen, the state’s oil and gas chief, is quitting to return to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, according to a statement from Brown’s office.
The statement did not give a reason for Bohlen’s resignation, but it said Bohlen had been on loan from his work at the research center. Officials at the Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
The state’s oilfield regulation agency has had a series of top-level turnovers at least since 2011, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stepped up criticism that the agency was failing to enforce federal laws meant to protect public health and the environment from oilfield pollution.
Brown, who has sought to boost the state’s oil production while encouraging some of the most ambitious conservation programs in the country, boasted in 2012 of speeding up the agency’s oil permitting by firing one of Bohlen’s predecessors, after oil companies accused her of demanding rigorous environmental reviews.
The AP reported earlier this month that Brown directed Bohlen in June 2014, days after appointing Bohlen to the job, to investigate and map out the oil, gas and mineral potential and history of the Brown family ranch in Northern California.
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