Last week, three bills aimed at holding oil drillers accountable for their pollution passed the California state legislature and are now awaiting Governor Newsom’s signature to become law. The bills are part of a campaign called “Make Polluters Pay.”
AB 2716 (Bryan) – The Low Producing Well Accountability Act requires oil wells in the Inglewood Oil Field that produce less than 15 barrels of oil per day to pay $10,000 per month. This is expected to lead to the closure of the Inglewood Oil Field and its 800 community oil wells in the Baldwin Hills area of Los Angeles.
AB 1866 (Hart) – The Idle Oil Well Cleanup Act prioritizes the cleanup of idle wells to facilitate the plugging of the wells and protect communities. An idle well is defined as any oil well that has not produced oil or natural gas for 24 consecutive months. There are an estimated 41,567 idle and orphan wells in California.
AB 3233 (Addis) – The Local Environmental Choice And Safety Act protects local governments’ authority to restrict oil and gas production in their jurisdictions. This bill is expected to reinforce the ban on new wells passed by the City and County of Los Angeles.
According to Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, these bills are a significant step toward shutting down oil wells that endanger communities and cleaning up oil well contamination in California.
Idle and orphan wells can leak the carcinogen benzene, posing health and safety hazards for local communities, and can contaminate local groundwater. Additionally, an estimated 67% of unplugged wells are currently leaking methane statewide, which is more than 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere over 20 years. Plugging these wells could substantially improve public health in the affected communities.
It’s estimated that nearly one million Californians live near active or retired oil wells, and approximately nine million people, roughly 20% of the population, live near abandoned or plugged wells. The share of Latino residents living near active wells is 13% higher than their statewide percentage. Latino children are at a higher risk of health issues such as asthma and Type 2 diabetes due to overexposure to polluted air.
A new USC study links living near urban oil wells with wheezing and reduced lung function, symptoms disproportionately borne by people of color in Los Angeles. In some cases, the respiratory harm rivals that of daily exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke or living beside highways spewing auto exhaust, researchers say.
Advocates are now turning their attention to Governor Gavin Newsom and urging him to sign the bills into law. Nayamin Martinez, the executive director of the Central California Environmental Justice Network, said “Newsom can take an important step toward improving the quality of life by forcing the oil industry to be responsible for plugging, cleaning up and removing unnecessary oil wells. It will also be an important sign that our elected leaders’ priority is the communities that elect and represent them in the face of powerful oil interests.”
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