An oil pumpjack operates within the Inglewood Oil Field on January 28, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
The Los Angeles City Council has voted to ban latest oil and gas drilling and phase out existing wells over the following twenty years, a historic decision that comes after years of complaints by residents about how pollution from nearby drilling has caused them health issues.
In a 12-0 vote, the council on Friday approved an ordinance it began drafting earlier this 12 months that can immediately ban latest extraction and shut down existing operations inside 20 years. The choice to ban latest drilling and decommission existing wells is certainly one of the strongest environmental policies enacted within the state, and will pave the way in which for other cities across the country to adopt similar measures.
Historically, environmental laws that has originated in California has often spread to other parts of the country, comparable to cleaner emissions standards for cars within the Seventies. More recently, the state banned the sale of recent gasoline-powered cars by 2035, and Latest York state soon followed suit.
There are 26 oil and gas fields and greater than 5,000 lively and idle wells in LA. Wells are unfolded all around the city, including Wilmington, Harbor Gateway, downtown, West LA, South LA and the northwest San Fernando Valley.
The oil industry has largely opposed the town’s ban, arguing that phasing out production will make LA more depending on foreign energy. The council said it could ensure oil corporations are held accountable for adequately plugging and completing comprehensive site remediation inside three to 5 years of shutting down production sites.
Town can also be conducting studies to find out when oil corporations in LA will give you the chance to recoup their capital investments in drilling activities. If operators can recoup those investments before the 20-year timeline, the town could require those corporations to shut down production even sooner.
Greater than half 1,000,000 people in LA live inside a quarter-mile of lively wells that release harmful air pollutants like benzene, hydrogen sulfide, particulate matter and formaldehyde. Nearly one-third of the town’s wells are positioned outside of drill sites between parks, schools and houses, and communities of color are disproportionately affected by the health impacts of those sites.
Individuals who live closer to drilling are at greater risk of preterm births, asthma, respiratory disease and cancer, research shows. Living near drilling can also be linked to weakened lung function and wheezing, in response to a study published within the journal Environmental Research.
Stand Together Against Neighborhood Drilling, or Stand LA, a coalition of environmental justice organizations, said in a press release that the choice “signals that Black, Latinx and other communities of color currently living near polluting oil wells and derricks in South LA & Wilmington will eventually breathe easier.”
