BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — About 20 years ago, Chad Hathaway started Hathaway LLC, an independent oil company based in Bakersfield.

“What they’ve done literally in this case is they’ve taken from us our ability to develop our minerals, develop our properties,” said Hathaway. “So constitutionally, it’s not right, it’s not fair.”

Operating about 300 wells throughout Kern County, Hathaway shares that SB 1137 has been a slippery slope for the company.

“Out of our production, about 50% of it was impacted by the SB 1137, which means we can no longer drill, we can no longer work on the wells to make significant changes to them, and basically puts the wells on a pathway to death,” said Hathaway.

SB 1137 establishes a “health protection zone,” which bans the development of new oil wells withi

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