Oil Drilling in Unincorporated LA County
There are hundreds of active and idle oil wells in unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County spread across LA County Supervisor District 2, District 4, and District 5.
Living near an active oil & gas extraction site comes at a deadly cost. There is an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence linking exposure to toxic chemicals from oil drilling to negative health outcomes including, nausea, headaches, asthma, lung and heart disease, birth defects, cancer, and more. In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic that attacks the body’s cardiovascular and respiratory systems, it is even more important to enact strong regulations to protect the health & safety of frontline communities in Los Angeles.
Communities of color and low-income communities are most severely and disproportionately impacted by oil drilling in their neighborhoods. We demand an end to environmental racism and call on the County to protect people not polluters by enacting strong regulations to phase out urban oil extraction.
Historic Phase Out Vote
In 2021, Sierra Club, in coalition with other environmental orgs — including STANDLA — collected a letter in support of full phase out with over 140 labor, faith and community orgs and submitted it to the county. (Read the just transition labor letter here.) Volunteers also collected a letter in support of the phase-out signed by 45 elected officials (including 9 city council members). The County voted unanimously on three motions related to oil and gas drilling. One which would identify and help clean up idle wells. One which would expand the Just Transition taskforce and another that banned new oil drilling and directed the County to write a motion to begin the process of phasing out existing oil drilling. (This motion included the Inglewood Oil Field.) You can read the press release here.
This vote was historic, no other county in the country had begun the process of phasing out existing oil drilling.
However, since then, litigation from the oil industry has stalled much needed implementation of the motion. Our work in Clean Break is to support the county in keeping their promise.
