In his 1941 will, local businessman Albert Fuhrman left the city of San Francisco 800 acres of oil land in Kern County. Since then, San Francisco has leased the land to oil companies — previously Shell, now Chevron — providing the Public Library and Recreation and Park Department with royalty payments of 15.5 percent on oil and gas extracted from the site.

In 2016, needless to say, San Francisco presents a highly different environment for the consumption of fossil fuels than it once did, and having recently probed the lease arrangement, Supervisor Avalos tells the Examiner that he's had enough. The paper reports that the politician is introducing “Keep it in the Ground” legislation to the Board of Supervisors that would ban lessees from extracting fossil fuels on public land. The move would eventually cut ties with Chevron in 2020 when that lease expires and might otherwise be renewed.

Per Fuhrman's will, revenue from the land goes in equal parts to "acquisition of additional books on economic and political subjects" and to “the further adornment of our famed and beloved Golden Gate Park, as may be determined by the Park Commissioners." Director of Real Estate John Updike puts the revenue as $749,972 back in 2009 but just $320,605 last year.

“The City getting revenue from fossil fuel extraction when we’re trying to reduce our dependency on fossil fuel doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Avalos reportedly said. “It’s not a significant amount of revenue... We have to keep fossil fuel in the ground. We cannot burn it. If we were to burn it all we will destroy the planet.”

When the lease expires, what will San Francisco do with its land? Why not a solar farm, Updike suggests? That had been unfeasible in one study, but will be reexamined closer to 2020.

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