Law limiting new oil wells in California set to take effect after industry withdraws referendum
SACRAMENTO, California — A California law banning the drilling of new oil wells near homes and schools, for example, will soon come into effect. The oil industry has announced it would pull a referendum from the ballot box in November and ask voters to block it.
The law, passed for the first time in 2022never went into effect because the California Independent Petroleum Association collected enough signatures for the referendum.
The association announced on Wednesday that it would withdraw the referendum. Instead, it plans to file a lawsuit and ask a judge to block the law.
The announcement shakes up a busy November mood, as both parties braced for what would have been a costly campaign.
California was the largest oil-producing state in the country more than a century ago, but has since been overtaken by Texas, New Mexico, North Dakota, Colorado, Alaska and Oklahoma.
The oil industry is still a powerful force in state politics, known for its taste in the state legislature. But that influence has decreasedalong with the state’s oil production.
The 2022 law bans the drilling of new wells within 3,000 feet (975 meters) of “sensitive receptors,” defined as homes, schools, hospitals, nursing homes, retirement homes, prisons and any business open to the public.
In asking voters to block the bill, the oil industry’s strategy was to portray it as an “energy freeze,” arguing that it would only increase the state’s dependence on foreign oil and contribute to California’s high gas prices, which remain among the highest in the country.
Supporters of the law responded by saying that oil wells emit harmful pollution, which increases the risk of conditions such as asthma and cancer.
The California Independent Petroleum Association disputed these claims. But it concluded that “energy freeze proponents can make unsubstantiated claims in the press and in paid advertisements, but they cannot make those claims in court without evidence,” said Jonathan Gregory, chairman and CEO of the oil and gas company the Union. RMX Resources.
“That is why we are moving from the referendum to a legal strategy,” Gregory said.
Supporters of the law took the news as an acknowledgment of the oil industry’s defeat. Mabel Tsang, political director of the California Environmental Justice Alliance, said the passage of the law and the referendum’s cancellation were the result of a “multi-decade struggle” for communities near oil drilling. The withdrawal also came after supporters a national campaign launched in March to enforce the law, with support from people like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jane Fonda and Governor Gavin Newsom.
“Big Oil saw what they were up against — and they gave up, again,” Newsom said in a statement. “No parent in their right mind would vote to allow drilling next to daycares and playgrounds.”
The legislature also put pressure on the oil industry. Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, a Los Angeles Democrat whose district includes the largest urban oil field in the United States, introduced a bill that would have fined companies $10,000 a day for operating wells near homes and schools that cost less than Produce 15 barrels per day.
Bryan said in an interview that he agreed with limiting the bill’s scope to the oil field in his district, known as the Inglewood oil field.
“That was the gift from me to them in exchange for them agreeing to withdraw this measure,” Bryan said.
Sen. Lena Gonzalez, a Long Beach Democrat who wrote the ban on new oil wells, said she was confident the bill would withstand a court challenge. She said the law, if it were finally enacted, would mean cleaner air for her community, which includes her three sons.
“I never thought this would actually happen because of the power and influence that is sometimes in this building,” she said at the Capitol. “This time the oil didn’t win, and this time our community won.”