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LA City Council Passes Final Vote to Phase Out Oil Drilling Citywide
Frontline residents and advocates celebrate environmental justice win after a decade of community organizing against urban oil drilling sites
LOS ANGELES – In a final decision, the Los Angeles City Council voted today to approve an ordinance that will prohibit new oil and gas extraction and phase out existing oil drilling citywide. The phaseout ordinance designates existing extraction activities as a nonconforming land use in all zones of the City of Los Angeles and provides a timeline of 20 years for operators to phase out their operations.
The ordinance applies to over 600 active and 1,200 idle oil wells scattered throughout Los Angeles. It will amend decades of land use decisions that concentrated oil drilling in Black and Latine communities. Communities living near these sites experience negative health impacts ranging from throat irritation, chronic headaches, reproductive impacts, and respiratory harm linked to exposure to the chemicals emitted during oil and gas extraction.
“After over a decade, Black and Latine frontine communities have a commitment from their City leaders that their health and their communities have value, and a promise that they will be protected,” said Rev. Victor Cyrus-Franklin, Lead Pastor of Holman United Methodist Church. “It has been a long time coming and a change has come to South LA. This ushers LA closer to a new era of environmental justice.”
Los Angeles is now the largest city in the United States to take this step to phase out oil drilling, and one of the first ever to do so (after Culver City).
“Today’s victory holds the power to set a model for cities across the U.S. and create a domino effect: LA is now setting the precedent for how local governments can phase out and physically dismantle fossil fuel infrastructure, with public health and safety at the forefront,” said Wendy Miranda, Esperanza Community Housing.
The move to phase out oil extraction in the City follows more than a decade of advocacy from STAND-L.A. (Stand Together Against Neighborhood Drilling – Los Angeles), a coalition of environmental justice groups that represent frontline communities in South Los Angeles and Wilmington opposing oil extraction in their neighborhoods.
“We wake up to black soot on our windowsills. We choke on the foul stench of gas and rotten eggs drifting through our streets. And we suffer the severe health consequences—asthma, dizziness, miscarriages, heart disease, and cancer. This is environmental racism in action.
But today, the City Council made it possible for us to write a different story for our communities, our health and our future,” said Ashley Hernandez, an organizer with Communities for a Better Environment and lifelong resident of Wilmington.
“I felt a wave of relief once I heard the ordinance passed. This means me and my family and neighbors can look ahead to brighter, healthier days in our community. I’ve been involved in this fight for so many years and been to so many meetings, protests, City Council hearings to fight for this. Finally seeing the City act on this environmental injustice shows how much power we have built,” said Ruth Andrade, a resident and organizer with SCOPE-LA (Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education).
The phase-out will take 20 years to go into effect, meaning current and future residents living near oil wells will continue to face health and safety risks. STAND-LA advocates and frontline residents continue to call for the City to revoke permits for oil drilling sites with repeat violations, including the Warren E&P Banning Drill Site and the E&B Murphy Drill Site. Likewise, advocates are demanding that the City direct the Los Angeles Fire Department to use its existing authority to hold oil operators accountable for the City’s over 1,200 idle wells that pose health, environmental, and financial risks. “20-years is too long to wait. The City has tools to protect residents now. It must start using them,” said Richard Parks, president of Redeemer Community Partnership.
“The City’s commitment to public health and environmental justice is only as meaningful as their follow-through. Phasing out oil drilling isn’t the finish line, but rather the first step to protect residents. We need the City to use all of the many tools at its disposal to protect communities – from holding violating oil operators accountable, to addressing the health and financial risks of idle wells, to ensuring each toxic site is fully cleaned up, remediated, and redeveloped based on what each community envisions.” said Tianna Shaw-Wakeman Environmental Justice Director, Black Women for Wellness.
Today’s vote was the second and final vote on the ordinance, which readopts an amended ordinance to phase out oil extraction that originally passed in December 2022. After the original ordinance was passed, oil companies sued the City and overturned it in September 2024. Since then, California passed AB 3233, a law reaffirming that cities and counties have the authority to restrict oil and gas operations in their jurisdictions.
“This is the second time frontline communities have fought and won these protections, and this time the ordinance is on much firmer ground. Los Angeles has this power, among many other powers, to put our health and safety first,” said Maro Kakoussian, Director of Climate & Health Programs at Physicians for Social Responsibility – Los Angeles.
The phaseout ordinance will go before Mayor Karen Bass to sign before going into effect.
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STAND-L.A. (Stand Together Against Neighborhood Drilling, Los Angeles) is an environmental justice coalition of community organizations founded in 2013. The coalition fights to end urban oil drilling in Los Angeles and protect the health of local residents.