Friday’s vote came after more than a decade of complaints from city residents that pollution from wells was affecting their health.
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously on Friday to ban the drilling of new oil and gas wells and phase out existing ones over the next 20 years.
The vote comes after more than a decade of complaints from city residents that pollution from wells was affecting their health.
“Hundreds of thousands of Angelenos have had to raise their children, go to work, cook their meals (and) go to neighborhood parks in the shadow of oil and gas production,” the city council president said. of Los Angeles, Paul Krekorian, one of the board members. who introduced this measure. “The time has come…when we will end oil and gas production in the city of Los Angeles.”
Two engineers from Yorke Engineering, a California-based company that performs air quality and environmental compliance reviews, spoke out against the order. They said a ban and phase-out would have a negative effect as oil and gas operators would abandon wells. They said it was underestimated by the city. If they move away, it will mean increased air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, they said.
But Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer said those claims were “not credible”, citing a review by Impact Sciences, another California-based company that has conducted an environmental analysis of the ordinance for the city.
Los Angeles was once a booming oil town. Many of its oil fields are now depleted, but there are still several productive ones.
According to the City Comptroller’s Office, there were 780 active wells and 287 unused wells within the city limits in 2018. An inactive well is a well that is not working, but also has not been permanently sealed, from so that it could be put back into production.
Near Long Beach is the highly prolific Wilmington oilfield, which produced more than 10 million barrels of crude oil in 2019, according to state records.
Hundreds of wells still active in this field are concentrated in Wilmington, a predominantly Latino part of Los Angeles. Several clusters of active wells, located near homes, ball diamonds and day care centers, are operated by companies like E&B Natural Resources Management Corporation and Warren Resources.
Warren Resources CEO and Chairman James A. Watt said in a statement to The Associated Press that the company has invested $400 million in its oil and gas operations. “We intend to use all available legal resources to protect our major investment from this illegal take,” he said.
Many other wells are found just outside the Los Angeles city limits in Carson, Inglewood, and Long Beach.
Some studies examine the possible effects of pollution emanating from the city’s existing oil and gas wells.
Researchers from the University of Southern California in a 2021 study found that people living near wells in two Los Angeles neighborhoods — University Park and Jefferson Park — reported significantly higher rates of wheezing, d eye and nose irritation, sore throat and dizziness than neighbors living further away. a way. According to the US Census, these two communities are predominantly non-white with large black and Latino communities.
The push to ban drilling in the city of Los Angeles is part of a regional effort to stop oil and gas extraction throughout Los Angeles County, with similar measures covering Culver City and unincorporated parts in Los Angeles County society adopted in 2021.
“In Los Angeles, we sit on the largest urban oil field in the world,” council member Marqueece Harris-Dawson said before the vote. “So if Los Angeles can do it, cities around the world can do it.”
Watch more from ABC10: Crimson Renewable Energy turns used cooking oil into biodiesel
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Friday’s vote came after more than a decade of complaints from city residents that pollution from wells was affecting their health.
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously on Friday to ban the drilling of new oil and gas wells and phase out existing ones over the next 20 years.
The vote comes after more than a decade of complaints from city residents that pollution from wells was affecting their health.
“Hundreds of thousands of Angelenos have had to raise their children, go to work, cook their meals (and) go to neighborhood parks in the shadow of oil and gas production,” the city council president said. of Los Angeles, Paul Krekorian, one of the board members. who introduced this measure. “The time has come…when we will end oil and gas production in the city of Los Angeles.”
Two engineers from Yorke Engineering, a California-based company that performs air quality and environmental compliance reviews, spoke out against the order. They said a ban and phase-out would have a negative effect as oil and gas operators would abandon wells. They said it was underestimated by the city. If they move away, it will mean increased air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, they said.
But Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer said those claims were “not credible”, citing a review by Impact Sciences, another California-based company that has conducted an environmental analysis of the ordinance for the city.
Los Angeles was once a booming oil town. Many of its oil fields are now depleted, but there are still several productive ones.
According to the City Comptroller’s Office, there were 780 active wells and 287 unused wells within the city limits in 2018. An inactive well is a well that is not working, but also has not been permanently sealed, from so that it could be put back into production.
Near Long Beach is the highly prolific Wilmington oilfield, which produced more than 10 million barrels of crude oil in 2019, according to state records.
Hundreds of wells still active in this field are concentrated in Wilmington, a predominantly Latino part of Los Angeles. Several clusters of active wells, located near homes, ball diamonds and day care centers, are operated by companies like E&B Natural Resources Management Corporation and Warren Resources.
Warren Resources CEO and Chairman James A. Watt said in a statement to The Associated Press that the company has invested $400 million in its oil and gas operations. “We intend to use all available legal resources to protect our major investment from this illegal take,” he said.
Many other wells are found just outside the Los Angeles city limits in Carson, Inglewood, and Long Beach.
Some studies examine the possible effects of pollution emanating from the city’s existing oil and gas wells.
Researchers from the University of Southern California in a 2021 study found that people living near wells in two Los Angeles neighborhoods — University Park and Jefferson Park — reported significantly higher rates of wheezing, d eye and nose irritation, sore throat and dizziness than neighbors living further away. a way. According to the US Census, these two communities are predominantly non-white with large black and Latino communities.
The push to ban drilling in the city of Los Angeles is part of a regional effort to stop oil and gas extraction throughout Los Angeles County, with similar measures covering Culver City and unincorporated parts in Los Angeles County society adopted in 2021.
“In Los Angeles, we sit on the largest urban oil field in the world,” council member Marqueece Harris-Dawson said before the vote. “So if Los Angeles can do it, cities around the world can do it.”
Watch more from ABC10: Crimson Renewable Energy turns used cooking oil into biodiesel