Sign the Petition to Protect LA’s Health & Safety Over Big Oil’s Profits
In 2022, the Los Angeles City Council took bold action to phase out drilling within city limits. The ordinance was a historic win for public health and climate advocates, including frontline environmental justice coalition groups such as STAND-LA, which had been fighting to end neighborhood oil drilling for more than a decade. But in 2024, after lawsuits from oil companies, in a disappointing decision, a judge ruled to overturn the ordinance.
Now, the city is moving forward to redo the oil phaseout ordinance and once again put the City of Los Angeles on track to shut down all oil wells in its jurisdiction. The City Planning department is currently receiving comments through email and our partners at STAND-LA need our help to flood their inbox with demands from community members about why this needs to be a priority.
LA is home to around 2,000 oil wells that produce harmful fossil fuels. The majority of oil wells are located in low-income Black and Latino communities like South Los Angeles and Wilmington, who bear the brunt of these harms for the benefit of wealthier and white communities.
Communities living near these sites experience negative health impacts ranging from throat irritation, burning eyes, chronic headaches, and respiratory harm. It is environmental injustice to allow oil companies to drill with impunity in low-income BIPOC communities where residents are facing numerous environmental, social, and public health stressors.
That is why oil drilling in LA cannot continue any longer. To protect our homes and communities, improve the air quality and health for communities living near oil wells, and move toward a just and clean energy future, we need to ensure our city’s recovery also means ending neighborhood oil drilling.
Join Liberty Hill community partners at STAND-L.A. and its coalition of frontline communities and environmental justice groups in demanding action.
