A long legacy of racist land use decisions means that community members in Wilmington face toxic oil drilling right in their backyards. Neighborhood oil drilling makes oil spills, air pollution, and contaminated land and water an unfortunately common occurrence in Wilmington.
In support of organizing efforts, CBE uses the law to fight for community health and to phaseout neighborhood oil drilling.
On November 6, 2015, CBE filed this impact litigation case on behalf of Youth for Environmental Justice, together with the South Central Youth Leadership Coalition and the Center for Biological Diversity, against the City of Los Angeles and its planning department to challenge their approvals of oil drilling operations in residential neighborhoods.
As a result of our case, the Office of Zoning Administration implemented new application and decision-making procedures for oil and gas drilling that end the rubber-stamping of drilling applications and “categorical exemptions,” and to require environmental review and public participation procedures (public hearing, 1500 foot notification, Health Impact Assessments and EIRs).
Shortly after we filed the action, the California Independent Petroleum Association (“CIPA”) filed a cross-complaint. We filed an anti-SLAPP motion to strike, as did the City. These motions showed that CIPA’s cross-complaint was a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. The court denied the motions. We immediately appealed. CIPA moved for attorney fees against us and the City, seeking over $700,000 purportedly incurred filing its complaint and defending against the anti-SLAPP motions. The court of appeal delivered a resounding rebuke to CIPA, concluding CIPA’s case was a SLAPP attempt.
Working with our co-counsel at the firms Peiffer Wolf Carr & Kane, and Gupta/Wessler, and attorneys at the Center for Biological Diversity, we secured a significant victory protecting communities’ basic right to environmental review over proposed neighborhood oil drilling.
Over time (2015-2022), the Standing Together Against Neighborhood Drilling Los Angeles (STAND-LA) coalition built the momentum for the City of Los Angeles to adopt an ordinance to phaseout all oil drilling within the city to protect people’s health and curb fossil fuel emissions. At the end of 2022, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously passed Ordinance No. 187709, which amended the Los Angeles Municipal Code to prohibit new oil and gas drilling activities and make existing extraction a nonconforming use in all zones subject to a 20-year phase out period.
In January 2023, several oil drillers and oil industry lobby groups sued the City of LA in LA Superior Court seeking to overturn the ordinance. They alleged violations of their constitutional rights, including due process and taking of property without just compensation, violations of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and preemption of the ordinance by state law, among other claims.
In January 2024, several STAND-LA member groups including CBE, Esperanza Community Housing Corporation, and Physicians for Social Responsibility Los Angeles, together with STAND ally groups Natural Resources Defense Council and Center for Biological Diversity, moved to intervene in the litigation to defend the phaseout ordinance. The oil industry opposed the intervention. The court swiftly denied the motion to intervene.
Without allowing our voices to speak in support of these reasonable health-protective measures, in September 2024 the court ruled in favor of the oil industry and struck down the ordinance. It concluded the City did not have the authority to regulate oil drilling more strictly than the State and the ordinance was therefore preempted by state law. Later that month, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 3233 into law, which clarified and reaffirmed that local jurisdictions like the City of LA do indeed have the authority to regulate oil and gas drilling more rigorously than the state. AB 3233 took effect January 1, 2025. The City of LA is now in the process of readopting its phaseout ordinance.