Los Angeles’ plans to close oil wells and support fossil fuel workers

2026

C40 Knowledge Hub

Los Angeles highlights the opportunity to accelerate fossil fuel phase out by placing decision-making power in the hands of the authorities closest to the people who experience negative impacts.

Southern California was once among the most prolific oil-producing regions in the world, with most of the oil wells in urban areas, often in lower-income Black and Hispanic communities. Around a third of the 10 million people in Los Angeles County live less than a mile from an active or idle well. In the City of Los Angeles, 1,149 oil wells lie within a quarter mile of schools and more than 788 oil wells are less than 50 feet from sensitive uses such as residences, day care centers and hospitals. As well as the carbon emitted when oil is burnt for fuel, the wells leak methane and toxins, putting people living nearby at greater risk of respiratory problems, cancer, premature birth, rashes, migraines and nosebleeds. In 2019, the City of Los Angeles’ groundbreaking Oil and Gas Health Report which analysed existing oil and gas infrastructure confirmed the health risks associated with proximity to extraction operations, a first for the City.

When the 2019 Los Angeles Green New Deal set a course for carbon neutrality by 2050, there were over 1,800 active or idle wells within city limits, and more in LA County; meeting emissions targets and public health goals requires their closure. In 2022, LA City Council voted to ban new oil and gas wells and to close existing ones within 20 years – a move championed by environmental justice groups and widely viewed as a community-led victory. LA County signed a similar law in 2023. The City and County of Los Angeles also set up a Just Transition Taskforce, which brings together workers, unions, tribal nations and other stakeholders to develop recommendations on supporting the 664 oil extraction workers impacted by the plans and their communities.

They created the Just Transition Strategy, comprising 19 specific recommendations, aimed at supporting workers in oil drilling to find new employment, properly remediating oil well properties, and engaging frontline communities in land use redevelopment planning. More recently, the Taskforce created an implementation strategy with funding priorities resulting in the submission of funding proposals worth USD 300,000 to advance the Strategy.

These ordinances were enacted in the absence of supportive national or state legislation and have tested the City and County of LA’s legal powers. In 2024, a California Supreme Court ruling in response to lawsuits brought by oil companies struck them down on the basis that jurisdiction lies with the state, but the ruling was overturned by the California Governor, who signed three new laws that:

1. gave local governments powers to regulate and prohibit oil extraction;

2. strengthen regulations to prevent leaks and contamination from idle wells;

3. prohibit the operation of low-production oil and gas wells in LA County’s Inglewood Oil Field.

The legal clarity clears a path for local jurisdictions across California to phase out oil production, including several with voter-approved bans that have been blocked by years of litigation and appeals.

Los Angeles has capitalised on this legal clarity and is in the process of readopting the Oil and Gas Drilling Ordinance by the end of this year. The proposed Ordinance disallows major oil well activities that lead to the intensification of existing oil extraction activities. The proposed Ordinance will also create a universal Compliance Review process for sites posing nuisance issues in addition to a separate review process to assess oil well repair activities that may be necessary to prevent, respond to, or cease credible threats to public health, safety or the environment.

Sources

To go further