The Los Angeles City Council approved a proposed ordinance Wednesday that would reinstate its 2022 ban on oil drilling.
In a 13-0 vote, the City Council advanced the proposed ordinance, and it now heads to Mayor Karen Bass for her consideration. Council members Imelda Padilla and Curren Price were absent during the vote.
The gas and oil ordinance, once finalized, would declare all existing oil and gas activities a nonconforming use in all zones. Any oil wells and gas activities would be phased out within a 20-year period unless authorized by the city as an approved “well maintenance, well servicing exception and/or healthy and safety exception,” according city documents.
The proposed ordinance would also create a separate review process to permit such activities only to prevent, respond to, or cease credible threats to public health, safety or the environment.
City Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky, chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, and who previously led the Energy and Environment Committee, thanked Stand Together Against Neighborhood Drilling, or STAND-LA, for its 14 years of work on the issue.
STAND-LA is a racial and environmental justice coalition of community groups that has worked to address oil drilling and other gas activities in the city.
Yaroslavsky acknowledged the city is likely to get sued over its proposed ordinance, just as it did last time. But she said city staff put in a lot of effort to ensure the measure’s legality.
“The record is more clear than ever about why this approach is valid and urgently needed. The ordinance’s findings shine an even more direct light as to why this kind of health and safety action is needed and urgently,” Yaroslavsky said.
“And there’s one finding I want to spotlight in particular. The ordinance finding states, `a core principle of zoning in Los Angeles is to protect citizens’ health, safety and welfare by reducing incompatible adjacent land uses.’ And that phrase strikes me because it does highlight that this ordinance is emblematic of the real purpose of zoning,” Yaroslavksy added.
Councilwomen Traci Park and Ysabel Jurado hailed the effort, noting that it’s an important step forward for public health and environmental justice.
“We are all well past the debate about whether gas and oil wells belong in our residential communities,” Park said. “They don’t.”
“…We’ve already decided that we are in fact transitioning L.A. to a 100% clean energy platform by 2035. That’s why we’re investing big time in wind, and solar, hydrogen, and more. That’s why it makes sense to stop new drilling, to stop certain expansions and to phase out existing operations. It’s long past due,” Park added.
Four years ago, the council and mayor approved an ordinance to phase out oil drilling citywide. But oil companies challenged the law, and it was eventually overturned in court.
Yaroslavsky said she worked with state Assemblywoman Dawn Addis, D-Morro Bay, to establish AB 3233, giving cities and counties greater authority to impose restrictions on oil and gas operations.
Los Angeles still has more than 2,000 active oil wells, many hidden in plain sight near homes, schools, parks and places of worship. Residents living near oil drill sites are at higher risk for childhood asthma, preterm labor and respiratory illness, according to city officials.
Warren Resources, which has a 10-acre drilling operation in the Wilmington area, was one of several oil companies that challenged the city’s initial ban, along with E&B Natural Resources Management Corp. and Hillcrest Beverly Oil Corp.
The lawsuit contended that the city failed in its duties to conduct an environmental review of the potential impacts of the ban. The company said the ban would force the closure of its operations, all within city limits.
In 2024, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 3233 into law, as well as two other bills that strengthened regulations on oil drilling.
The governor approved AB 2716 authored by Assemblyman Isaac Bryan, D-Los Angeles, which prohibits the operation of low-oil production and gas wells located in a field within the Baldwin Hills Conservancy, also known as the Inglewood Oil Field. It also mandates a $10,000 fine per month on those wells until operations cease.
Assemblyman Gregg Hart, D-Santa Barbara, authored AB 1866, which increases fines and enhances enforcement to ensure oil companies maintain and safely plug idle wells. The bill aimed to prevent leaks and address contamination caused by more than 40,000 idle oil wells across the state.