Wellness That Matters: Black Health News & Community Care
- If approved in a second vote, Los Angeles would become the largest U.S. city to phase out neighborhood oil drilling.
- The decade-long campaign by STAND-L.A. and frontline residents drove the push to end toxic extraction in South LA and Wilmington.
- Ordinance confronts decades of racist land use that concentrated drilling in Black and Latine communities, causing documented health harms.
- Ordinance advances to Los Angeles City Attorney review before further Council votes; advocates demand immediate site shutdowns and plugging of idle wells.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 23, 2026
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Kacey Bonner
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Sommer Yesenofski
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Los Angeles, CA – The Los Angeles City Council voted today to approve an ordinance that will prohibit new oil and gas extraction and phase out existing oil drilling citywide. This is a victory driven by over a decade of advocacy by and for frontline communities. The phaseout ordinance, written by the Department of City Planning, designates existing extraction activities as a nonconforming land use in all zones of the city.
If the phaseout ordinance passes a second Council vote later this summer, Los Angeles would become the largest city in the United States to take this step to phase out oil drilling, and one of the first ever to do so (after Culver City and Santa Barbara).
This vote has been over a decade in the making for STAND-L.A. (Stand Together Against Neighborhood Drilling – Los Angeles), a coalition of environmental justice groups that represent frontline communities in South Los Angeles and Wilmington that have been fighting for over a decade to halt the toxic extraction of oil in our neighborhoods.
“The passage of this ordinance shows that environmental justice communities bearing the brunt of impacts from racist policy and planning carry the answers to usher in an equitable future. Frontline residents who have faced the most harm from toxic oil extraction are setting the precedent for how local governments can phase out and dismantle fossil fuel infrastructure,” said Tianna Shaw-Wakeman, Environmental Justice Program Director for Black Women for Wellness. “After years of being denied self-determination over our neighborhoods, it’s imperative that the City now ensures community voices are centered to determine cleanup standards and to lead the visioning for what comes next.”
This phaseout ordinance will amend decades of racist land use decisions that concentrated oil drilling in Black and Latine communities. Communities living near these sites experience negative health impacts ranging from throat irritation, chronic headaches, reproductive impacts, and respiratory harm linked to exposure to the chemicals emitted during oil and gas extraction.
“This ordinance is about improving public health and air quality–it’s not only about our environment or our climate. Communities have lived too long with toxic drilling in their neighborhoods and the chronic exposure to pollution in their lungs. Clean air is essential and a health and human right, and our communities deserve to breathe easier. If you remember the COVID-19 pandemic, the thick wildfire smoke last January, or even the current warehouse fire in Boyle Heights, then you know how important that is,” said Wendy Miranda, Director of Policy for Esperanza Community Housing.
Today’s hearing was the first full-Council vote toward readopting the oil drilling phaseout ordinance that originally passed in December 2022. After the original ordinance was passed, oil companies sued the City and overturned it in September 2024. Since then, California passed AB 3233, a law reaffirming that cities and counties have the right to restrict oil and gas operations in their jurisdictions.
“For the second time, communities are rolling up their sleeves and holding the City accountable for the air they breathe and for protecting their safety. After a decade of organizing, public testimony, town halls, community science and health studies, and tracking oil operator activity, residents can finally feel hope that a victory for their health and safety is around the corner–because of the power they have built,” said Maro Kakoussian, Director of Climate & Health Programs at Physicians for Social Responsibility – Los Angeles.
Even with this important step forward, STAND-L.A. remains committed to seeing immediate relief for frontline residents who are daily impacted by oil drilling in their neighborhoods. The City must continue to take urgent action to shut down oil sites, such as revoking permits for the Warren E&P Banning Drill Site and the E&B Murphy Drill Site. Likewise, advocates are demanding that the City update its Fire Code to hold oil operators accountable for plugging the city’s over 1,500 idle wells that pose health and environmental risks.
“Passing this ordinance to phase out oil drilling is just the first step to protect residents. There are egregious violations happening at drill sites in South LA and Wilmington that need immediate attention from the City to protect residents and hold oil operators accountable,” said Richard Parks, President of Redeemer Community Partnership in South LA. “Also, the 1,500+ idle wells LAFD has allowed to go unplugged threatens to blow a hole in the city’s budget as oil companies drill and dash into bankruptcy, leaving taxpayers with the bill for cleanup.”
The phaseout ordinance will now advance to a review by the Los Angeles City Attorney before going back through the process of a second round of votes from City Council Committees and the full City Council.
About STAND-L.A.
STAND-L.A. is a racial and environmental justice coalition of community groups working for and with Angelenos on the front lines of urban oil extraction to uphold their human right to health and safety by eliminating neighborhood oil drilling, holding the oil industry accountable, and ensuring a just transition to an equitable, health-promoting economy.
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