Los Angeles adopted an ordinance that would end new oil and gas drilling and phase out existing operations over as many as 20 years, after a court ruled its earlier ban preempted by state law.
The City Council approved the measure Oct. 28, and Mayor Karen Bass signed it Oct. 29. The maximum phaseout period begins on the ordinance’s effective date, while an earlier shutdown deadline can apply. Existing wells are not required to stop producing immediately.
The ordinance treats existing wells as nonconforming uses, restricting projects to expand or redevelop them. It preserves an exception for work needed to address health, safety or environmental threats. Existing production may continue until the applicable shutdown deadline.
The measure follows a setback for the city’s previous effort. Oil producers challenged the 2022 ordinance, and a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled Sept. 6, 2024, that it was preempted by state law. The city later rescinded that ordinance and developed a replacement. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 3233 on Sept. 25, 2024, giving cities and counties greater authority to restrict or prohibit oil and gas development. Los Angeles says its new measure uses that authority.
The mayor’s office says oil operations can expose nearby neighborhoods to emissions, odors, noise, spills and truck traffic. It says frontline communities and communities of color have borne disproportionate burdens and frames the ordinance as a public-health and environmental-justice measure. City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson said, “No one should have to live near an oil drilling site.”
Before the final vote, Matt Wickersham, writing on behalf of E&B Natural Resources Management Corporation, argued the measure would take vested mineral and contract rights without compensation, calling it an “unconstitutional taking.” AB 3233 assigns operators responsibility for well closure and production-facility decommissioning when local entities limit or prohibit operations.
