STAND-LA Press Release: Judge Rules Against LA City Phaseout Ordinance

For Immediate Release
September 10, 2024

Contact: Julia Dionne | julialucydionne@gmail.com | (202) 423-9458

Judge Rules Against LA City Phaseout Ordinance

Today, it was made public that a judge from the Los Angeles County Superior Court adopted a decision overturning Los Angeles’s life-saving ordinance banning new oil drilling and phasing out existing oil wells in the City of Los Angeles.

The following is a statement from the STAND-LA coalition in response to this harmful decision: 

“We are disappointed in the recent decision to overturn Los Angeles’s ordinance to phase out oil drilling. It is simply unconscionable given that neighborhood oil drilling is fundamentally incompatible with human health. This ruling only serves to perpetuate environmental racism, and harms communities who have spent over a decade fighting for this life-saving policy. We—frontline communities and advocates—have seen firsthand how the oil industry shamelessly creates sacrifice zones out of low-income communities of color for the sole purpose of lining their own pockets. It is appalling that the oil industry has now been given a free pass to continue their harmful and racist business practices, sending a clear message that oil profits are of more value than that of human health and safety, especially in low-income Black and Brown communities. The racism is clear and we will not give up in our fight to reverse this harm and make sure that LA is a place where everyone can thrive.

For over a century, local jurisdictions have used their power to declare polluting industries as non-conforming land uses and prohibited those uses within city limits. The recent ruling on Los Angeles's ordinance on oil drilling completely ignores this century-old precedent and is an insult to the health and dignity of all Angelenos.

As the oil industry doubles down and the courts rule in their favor, now more than ever we need our leaders—the Governor, Los Angeles City Council, Mayor Bass, the City Attorney, and all elected officials—to step up and protect communities. Right now, Governor Gavin Newsom is considering AB 3233, a law that would affirm the local authority to protect communities from neighborhood drilling. We need this law to protect families, and we urge the Governor to sign this critical bill into law now.

While this decision is a setback for all LA residents, our goal remains the same: uplifting public health and environmental justice over industry profits. We will not stop fighting to end neighborhood oil drilling in the spaces where communities live, work, pray and play in.  Environmental justice is racial justice. ” 

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STAND-L.A. is an environmental justice coalition of community groups that seeks to end neighborhood drilling to protect the health and safety of Angelenos on the front lines of urban oil extraction.