After spending more than $25 million on election campaigns and political ads, California's oil and gas industry announced it will withdraw from the November ballot a hotly contested referendum seeking to remove restrictions on drilling near homes and schools. .
The California Independent Petroleum Association announced this week that its members will drop their costly effort to repeal Senate Bill 1137, a 2022 state law that would prevent new oil and gas wells from being drilled within 3,200 feet of homes, schools, parks and hospitals. Shortly after its passage, oil and gas companies organized an effort to collect enough signatures to put the state law on the ballot in the Nov. 5 general election.
However, in recent months, the Petroleum Association acknowledged that the referendum had not garnered sufficient levels of public support, according to its surveys. It had also been met with a groundswell of resistance from a well-funded counter-campaign that featured Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and iconic Hollywood actress Jane Fonda.
And, in perhaps one of the last attempts to negotiate a compromise, Assemblyman Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles) said he recently engaged in negotiations with fossil fuel interests, declaring that he would limit financial penalties in a bill separately if they withdrew their electoral initiative.
Aggressive and impactful reporting on climate change, the environment, health and science.
The oil industry's decision to withdraw the proposal marks an unexpected end to one of the state's most costly political races. In a state with more than 100,000 oil and gas wells offline, environmental advocates say upholding the setback law is essential to phasing out planet-warming fossil fuels and protecting residents who live nearby from toxic fumes. released by drilling sites.
Nearly one-third of these wells are within 3,200 feet of homes, schools and other sensitive areas, exposing nearly 3 million people to cancer-causing pollution. In addition to restricting new drilling, the law would prohibit maintenance and new drilling, ensuring that old wells remain shut in.
“It’s a huge, historic victory,” said Kassie Siegel, a senior adviser at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Victories like this don’t come around every day. The oil industry just went backwards in total defeat.”
Siegel described the development as a last gasp for oil and gas production.
“This is an industry that is going to disappear anyway,” he said. “What the state must do is monitor this continued decline in a way that minimizes the additional damage this dying industry causes on its way out.”
But the State Petroleum Association did not admit defeat: It vowed to fight California's well-limitation law and similar legislation in court.
“Californians do not want to further increase our dependence on expensive foreign crude when California workers can create the energy locally under the strictest regulations in the world,” said Jonathan Gregory, president of the California Independent Petroleum Association. He added: “We are moving from a referendum to a legal strategy, as it is a violation of the U.S. Constitution for the government to illegally take private property, particularly operations that were properly permitted by the government and all impacts mitigated.”
Although the oil industry called the 3,200-foot setbacks “arbitrary,” the distance was set by a 15-member panel of health experts convened by the Newsom administration. The panel concluded that there was a strong association with higher rates of asthma, heart disease and adverse birth outcomes for people living within that radius of oil and gas development.
Newsletter
Towards a more sustainable California
Get Boiling Point, our newsletter exploring climate change, energy and the environment, and be part of the conversation and the solution.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
The law is expected to bring huge health benefits to Southern California, where some of the largest oil fields border densely populated communities. Enshrining those protections was critical for Bryan, whose district includes the Inglewood Oil Field, the nation’s largest urban oil field that lies beneath Baldwin Hills, Culver City, Inglewood and Ladera Heights.
“I see that particular oil field being completely phased out in the next decade and a half,” Bryan said. “And I think the health implications for the communities around it will be immeasurable — longer life expectancy, lower rates of heart disease, lower rates of childhood asthma, and the opportunity to live and thrive without the toxicity of these wells right next to their homes.”
To do so, Bryan said he used Assembly Bill 2716 in negotiations with oil and gas interests. The bill, which he co-authored, would impose a $10,000 fine for operating low-producing wells within 3,200 feet of sensitive sites. In negotiations, Bryan said that if the ballot measure was withdrawn, he would revise House Bill 2716 so that the daily fine would apply only to the Inglewood oil field.
