Los Angeles Council Votes to End City Oil Drilling Over 20 Years

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to stop oil drilling within city limits, ordering new wells shut down at once and requiring existing production to end within 20 years. The measure covers about 600 active wells and 1,200 idle wells. Idle wells cannot be restarted. Councilmember Traci Park said the city has already committed to 100% clean electricity by 2035. "That's why it makes sense to stop new drilling, to stop certain expansion, and to phase out existing operations. It's long past due," Park said.

Mayor Karen Bass intends to sign the ordinance as soon as possible, officials in her office said. The measure makes Los Angeles the largest U.S. city to phase out existing oil wells.

The council attempted a similar phaseout in 2022, but an L.A. County Superior Court judge struck it down in 2024 after oil and gas producers sued. Producers argued that state law overrides municipal authority over petroleum extraction. Gov. Gavin Newsom later signed Assembly Bill 3233, which expressly allows local governments to regulate oil and gas operations. Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, who helped lead the effort to reinstate the ban, said further suits are likely. "Oil drilling, we know, has no place in the city of Los Angeles," she said.

The ordinance classifies existing oil and gas activity as nonconforming use under current zoning, permitting operation only through the 20-year phaseout. Wells cannot be redrilled, deepened or expanded. Routine service and maintenance continue. Most remaining active and idle wells sit in the Harbor District near the Port of Los Angeles and in west Central L.A., according to the city's dashboard. The Wilmington oil field near the port lies mostly beneath Long Beach, which the ordinance does not cover. An Inglewood oil field falls mostly under L.A. County jurisdiction.

About two-thirds of the city's active wells belong to Warren Resources, E&B Natural Resources Management Corp. and Tidelands Oil Production Co. Warren Resources led the lawsuit against the 2022 ban. In a December letter to the city, the company called the ordinance an unlawful taking of property and said it violates business and royalty owners' vested rights. The company also argued Assembly Bill 3233 is unlawful and does not give the city authority over operations governed by state and federal law, and wrote that there is a "lack of empirical evidence correlating oil and gas operations within the City of Los Angeles to widespread negative health impacts."

Ashley Hernandez, a Wilmington resident and organizer with Communities for a Better Environment, said residents there have suffered asthma, dizziness, miscarriages, heart disease and cancer. She described black soot on window sills and odors in the streets. "This is environmental racism in action," Hernandez said. "But today, the City Council made it possible for us to write a different story for our communities, our health and our future."

STAND-L.A., a coalition of environmental justice groups, noted that most city wells sit in communities of color. Wendy Miranda of Esperanza Community Housing said the vote sets a model for other cities. "L.A. is now setting the precedent for how local governments can phase out and physically dismantle fossil fuel infrastructure, with public health and safety at the forefront," Miranda said.

Bass released a Climate Action Plan in April that calls for an ordinance phasing out urban oil and gas operations across the city. The plan also calls for cleaning up drill sites so the land can be reused for housing, parks and other community uses.