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County Takes Step To End Drilling At Inglewood Oil Field
An oil pumpjack near homes in the Inglewood Oil Field, Los Angeles, California.
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Gary Kavanagh
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iStockphoto
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Topline:
A resolution to prohibit new oil drilling at the Inglewood oil field — and phase out existing drilling over the next 20 years — was approved unanimously by L.A. County’s Regional Planning Commission on Wednesday.
The backstory: Both L.A. city and L.A. County passed such oil phaseout resolutions in the last two years. But a large portion of the Inglewood Oil Field was left out because it’s governed by its own, separate district — the Baldwin Hills Community Standards District, which was established in 2008.
Public health win: Communities living near oil drilling have long sounded the alarm on the health impacts of living near oil drilling, such as increased rates of asthma and cancer. A 2021 USC study of two drilling sites in South L.A. found that people who live near drill sites can have lung damage similar to daily exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke. Drilling for oil is also one of the main reasons for human-caused climate change — drilling operations often leak the super-heating pollutant methane, and burning fossil fuels such as oil and gas is the primary driver of the climate crisis.
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What drilling companies say: Lawyers for the oil company operating in the Inglewood Oil Field stated in public comment that they dispute the level of health impacts and argue that ending drilling there would force the county to import more oil from South America and the Middle East, potentially raising gas prices.
What’s next: A final vote on the resolution by the County Board of Supervisors is expected next spring. If passed, the harder part of implementing the oil phase out would begin.
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