Los Angeles has become the largest city in the US to ban oil drilling, after years of lawsuits and campaigning by residents who raised the alarm over pollution and potential health risks from nearby wells.
"Frontline communities have pushed the city for a solution for this for over a decade," said local resident Wendy Miranda, who has campaigned for years with STAND-LA, a coalition of community groups working to end neighborhood oil drilling.
The ordinance, approved by the LA City Council on October 28, puts an immediate stop to oil extraction and bans re-drilling or deepening of wells, while existing operations must be phased out within city limits over the next 20 years.
Though LA City is only part of greater Los Angeles, the move affects hundreds of active wells and thousands of inactive ones, many located in working class communities of color.
"In South LA, working-class families have had corporations drilling across the street from their homes," said council president Marqueece Harris-Dawson in a statement. "No one should have to live near an oil drilling site."
Oil infrastructure is running just a stone's throw away from homes in LA neighborhoodsImage: Nils Hünerfürst/DWRock Zierman, CEO of the California Independent Petroleum Association (CIPA), told DW, "CIPA believes this ordinance constitutes an unlawful taking of private property."
LA follows much smaller Culver City, also in California, in moving against urban oil production, and begins the process of ending its long, complex relationship with fossil fuels.
Why residents campaigned to end city oil drilling
California's oil industry expanded rapidly in the early 20th century, when the state produced roughly a quarter of the world's oil. Lots of that so-called black gold was around LA and as the city grew, homes, schools and businesses were built around existing oil infrastructure.
Today, wells can be found beneath residential areas, close to playgrounds, along the coast and in some of the city's most densely populated and largely working-class neighborhoods. Some have been permanently sealed or plugged for decades, while others remain active or are idle.
Under California law, an idle well is one that has not produced oil for two years. Unlike plugged wells, they can potentially return to production.
How LA is plugging hidden oil wells
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Residents living near the active and inactive wells report strong odors, headaches, nausea and breathing difficulties. Another concern is air quality. Oil wells can release toxic pollutants, including benzene and hydrogen sulfide, and research has linked proximity to oil extraction with higher rates of respiratory illness and reduced lung function.
But both active and idle wells can also leak methane — a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change — while residents say occasional accidents or breakages send oil flowing down city streets.
"Frontline communities have been experiencing or have experienced for decades living near these toxic sites and having to pay for that with their health," said Miranda, a policy director with Esperanza Community Housing, a nonprofit providing affordable housing services.
Miranda told DW she and her mother both have asthma. The council vote "definitely represents hope," she added.
Previous attempts to ban oil production
LA City Council initially approved an ordinance to phase out oil extraction back in 2022 after successful lobbying by residents like Wendy Miranda. But oil companies challenged the measure in court, with industry groups successfully arguing that the city lacked the legal authority to impose the ban.
California subsequently passed legislation giving local governments greater power to regulate and restrict oil and gas operations, putting the possibility of a phaseout back on the table.
Some oil wells are hidden in plain sight, such as this building hiding an active oil-drilling operationImage: Nils Hünerfürst/DWIn an emailed statement to DW, CIPA CEO Rock Zierman said energy companies were prepared to challenge the new ordinance.
Zierman added that it would make city residents more dependent on foreign oil from countries with lower environmental standards when they are "already struggling" with high gas prices.
"It sends the jobs, investment and revenue elsewhere while leaving Californians to pay the bill," said Zierman.
The relationship between local oil production and prices at the pump is not straightforward and is influenced by a number of factors, according to the California Energy Commission, the state's main energy policy agency. Those include the cost of crude oil, refining, transportation, distribution and local taxes.
Even though the US is the world's largest oil producer, it exports and imports crude oil, as well as refined petroleum products. Because oil is traded globally, US residents are exposed to the same price fluctuations as people elsewhere, no matter how much of the fossil fuel is produced domestically.
California's oil industry and the amount of oil it produces have been steadily declining since the 1980s. In the coastal lowlands known as the LA Basin, output is 43% lower than eight years ago, with the amount of oil extracted falling more rapidly than the number of open wells.
Who will foot the bill for the cleanup?
When wells stop producing, it is up to the oil operators to remove equipment and plug them. The state agency that regulates oil and gas, CalGEM, and the LA fire department oversee plugging operations, and also seal wells for which no-one takes responsibility.
But many have not yet been plugged — some 80% of idle wells in LA have been inactive for more than eight years, and about a third for over a century.
The cost of plugging a well also varies widely, with estimates ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. California law requires operators to submit plugging plans or face annual fines that increase with the amount of time the well has been idle.
But those fines aren't always paid. According to CalGEM's own data, the agency collected just $1 million out of $36 million (€32 million) in fines in 2025.
A report by Carbon Tracker also found that if all future profits from oil companies operating in California went to decommissioning wells, the state would still face a shortfall of $7 billion. The cost would by default fall to taxpayers, according to Carbon Tracker.
Miranda told DW that the next step for community activists is to reduce the 20-year timeline and have the oil sector "pay for this cleanup." For now, she is says both she and her mother are hopeful that future generations "can have better health and breathe cleaner air."