Last month, the L.A. City Council had to revoke a policy that meant a lot to communities like mine: working class, Black and Latine families and mothers in South Los Angeles, Wilmington, and across L.A. living near active neighborhood oil drilling. Originally passed in 2022, the ordinance phased out oil wells in LA to protect public health. Active oil drilling is linked to increased rates of asthma, cancer risk, and other chronic health problems and it drives climate change. In the City of L.A., the majority of those living closest to oil drilling are Black and Latino residents who bear the burden of compromised health to put more money in the pockets of oil companies. Many people might be surprised to know that Los Angeles is home to the largest urban oil field in the country.
Unsurprisingly, the City’s effort to end this toxic extraction was challenged in court by those same deep-pocketed oil companies, and the ordinance was officially blocked by a Judge last September. Though I was disappointed, I was not surprised. The oil industry uses every tool at their disposal to protect their profit margins and shirk accountability. The consequences of this decision are devastating to my community’s health and my neighbors’ well-being. Revoking the ordinance means that after a decade of demanding health protections, communities like mine are still waiting for justice while we breathe in toxic air caused by oil extraction.
As long as we allow oil companies to drill in Los Angeles, we allow them to pollute the air we all share. It also gives them a blank check to continue to fuel climate change, which helped make the January wildfires so intense and devastating for the entire region. These two issues are related.
When the wildfires broke out, smoke filled the nooks and crannies of the L.A. area, including in my own neighborhood in South Central Los Angeles. Months later, communities from Altadena to the Pacific Palisades are still navigating how to handle toxic ash and debris alongside their grief. We can’t ignore the clear truth illuminated by the fires: In L.A., fossil fuels can take your house, take your health, or just as easily take both.
As our City recovers, we cannot go back to the ‘normal’ that drove these fires and continues to harm the health of our neighbors. A true recovery means that we set a new vision and define the new normal for L.A.
I want to see a new normal where everyone has clean air to breathe, where we put health above oil profits, and where we build vibrant communities that are resilient to climate change. That starts at the local level. If we want that future, we need to demand our City leaders work toward it. We can’t do that if we let Big Oil continue to sacrifice entire communities.
We have a new opportunity to move forward to develop an even stronger policy. Our local and state leaders must make a renewed commitment to put people and public health first by phasing out oil drilling in Los Angeles.
This time, City leaders have greater authority to act: A law advocated for by environmental justice communities and signed by California’s Governor in 2024 gives the City and County of L.A. the power to act in the best interest of the public to limit or prohibit oil and gas operations. We need the L.A. City Council to act quickly and use this clarified power to readopt a new ordinance to phase out oil drilling in Los Angeles’ neighborhoods.
This time, we need them to set an aggressive timeline for the phase-out of oil drilling. The initial timeline of 20 years is unacceptable to frontline communities, and the amortization studies released by the City last month proves it. We can no longer tell people they just have to wait, allowing the next generation of LA’s kids, workers, and elderly to breathe in toxic air.
It is time for the City of LA to dismantle LA’s oil wells as a promise to Angelenos that our health, our safety, and our future matters more than the profits of oil companies. Our lives are at stake, our quality of life is at stake, we need change, and we need it now.
Iretha Warmsley is a a member of SCOPE (Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education) and a resident of South LA.