gas altogether. noerr: it hururts me to think tt ssomehow, someway, we hahave drn a lline in the sand thatat says we'rere either g going to contie as a society based on renewable energy and ababandon all oil and gas s or we willll continue e wl and gas and d abandon the benefs ofof renewable. we'd truly like to sisit down ad speaeak with him regardingng his opinion,n, how he cacame by that opinion, but b by the sameme to, not just he but everybody he represents, everybodody that elected him a and everybody who llives around him, stitill, evey day, benefit from the e oil and gas industry. gurrola: so, this is nelson court. my house is over there. alma's is over there. but over here, this is all nelson court. everybody on this side of the street was evacuated, and the oil operations that was the source of the gas leak is this operation over here. you know, you have homes right

here, and then you have within a couple hundred feet, you u have oil operations. man: a monitor that we place here. it's been here for aboutut 8 months now,w, man. so, i it was deveveloped fromome community perspective. and so, right away, you see the pump jack. just a lemon t throw's aw, literally, from thhoususe, and thehen right behind [indistinct] on this side is thehe tank. we've seen this tank in past years, you know, releasing vocs into the air. and so, we monitoror--monitor te 8 monitors that wewe have here n arvin, and we--andnd the story s the s same. you k know, the background levels s in this community are sky-high. we see fence-line oil and gas operations like this around communitieies like this, you kn, in small, rural communities, and so, this isis one of ththe g

issueues here in arvin. gurrola: what the e city and its residents here, what they're trtrulexperiencicing is-- is not the normal. . in fact, 's the exceptption, and it's rereay an ininjustice ththat they're hg toto suffer througugh these environonmental burdens, whether if it's s air qualility, water contamamination. noeoerr: i know that o opinionf the industry h has been shaped y the e fact that i've b been invd in i it for decades successfull, and i am still here and i am still heaealthy and m my childrn and d my neighbors and my empployees are all stillll healy as well. so, decadeses of experience have s shaped my opinion. [indistinct chatter] hey, there, buddy. woman: hi, dave. noerr: nice to see everybody. i sure am glad you u could take te out of your busy day to sit dodn and talk k about what's ggoing n in this world.

we have very common needs, whether we live in the city of taft or the e city of arvin or the e state or c california or anywherere else. how many peopoe here have familily members that have been involveved in the industry for a while? just about everybody. woman: they don't focus on the biggerer picture b behind the oil,l, and therere may be incidents where ththere's spills or firires, but ththat'ss not or goal. we're more e focused on te prosos than the cons. man: there's always gonna be trade-offs, but oil is one of the most widely used fuels that wwe have outut there, anand it's really efficient for ourur community and e everywhere aroud the world that useses it. noerr: that's the reality of it. that is a facact. qualitity of life is imporortano all of us, and ignonorance is nt an evil t thing. ignonorance jut memeans peopople haven''t beenn exposed to the facacts. that's what dialogue is all about. it's not abobout throwining rocs or casting aspersions upon one's credibibility. it's abouout a

sharing of realalities. oil will be a critical part of our quality of life e for long after i'm dead and long after my children will be dead. we will find more of it, we'll do a better job of removing it, and we will utilize the benefefits f it more efefficientlyy everery single day.. gurrola: arvin is full of humble, hard-working people, and it's truly a david a and goliath story y when we're talking a abt putting health andnd safety fift versus a legacy billion-dollar inindustry t that's centerred rt here i in kern couounty. despipf ththat, we were able to o succe, and d e arvin ststory is not alone. t there's communities upp and down ththe central lleyey tt they are suffefering, and if we can succeed here inin kern coun, the number-two oil producing county in n the country, then other cities cacan go ahead and susucceedlslsewhe as wewell, and that the power trululy lies witn

the people. if t there's support from thehe community, then it cn reaeally do grereat things.s. [man speaking indistinctly] announcer: "earth focus" is made possible in part by a grant from

anne ray foundation, a margaret a. cargill philanthropy; the orange county community foundation; and the farvue foundation.

10/14/19 10/14/19 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy nono >> whenever it is, w we leave. if there is s no safety, where should we go? we a are not worried about ourselves, we are concerned for the future of the children. amy: more than 130,000 people have been displaced as turkey escalates its invasioion of northern syria. the