Education Center

California has an oil problem.

For decades Big Oil has run a disinformation campaign to:

Oil drilling in communities has created a public health and environmental justice emergency.

Oil production sites use and emit known carcinogens and endocrine disruptors, like benzene and formaldehyde, fine and ultra-fine particulate matter, and hydrogen sulfide. All of these chemicals have proven records of toxicity and are known to cause respiratory illnesses, preterm births, high-risk pregnancies, and even cancer in nearby communities. 

A long history of environmental racism in our state has concentrated oil and gas wells and refineries in communities of color and low-wealth communities. This has created a public health crisis.

More than 80% of California’s in-state oil production comes from just three counties: Kern, Los Angeles, and Ventura.

Los Angeles County

Los Angeles is the second largest oil producing region in California. Oil wells are hidden in plain sight and in close proximity to homes, schools, playgrounds and hospitals where they threaten the health of community members with toxic chemicals and filthy air.

Nalleli Cobo was just nine years old when she started experiencing body spasms that shook her so violently she couldn’t walk, and nosebleeds so severe she had to sleep sitting upright. She lived across the street from AllenCo, an urban oil field operating 21 wells just 30 feet from her bedroom window. For years Nalleli and her community sounded the alarm about the noxious fumes emitted from the site giving them nosebleeds, headaches and making it difficult to breathe.

Their fierce advocacy drew attention to the toxic pollution and helped get the site permanently shut down in 2020. After a decade of community organizing and advocacy by the STAND-LA coalition and allies, the L.A. City Council passed an ordinance to phase out oil drilling, becoming the first major city to do so. L.A.’s Board of Supervisors also passed an ordinance to phase out drilling in unincorporated parts of the county.

Nalleli continues advocating for an end to California oil drilling in the hopes that no other children have to suffer as she did.

Ventura County

Ventura County is the third-largest producer of oil and gas in California, following L.A. and Kern. Polluting oil operations take place right next to homes and schools, on top of precious drinking water reserves, and in between rows of fruits and vegetables, harming the health of farmworkers and communities.

More than 8,000 Ventura County residents live less than half a mile from an oil well and approximately 60% of those residents are Latine. Decades of loopholes in local permitting laws have expanded oil operations into communities like Lemonwood, a neighborhood in Oxnard that faces a higher pollution burden than 77% of the state.

Guadalupe is a lifelong resident of Lemonwood. When her daughter was just eight months old she experienced respiratory problems so severe she was airlifted to the hospital. Now in elementary school, she uses an inhaler for her asthma as she plays soccer next to an active oil drilling site. Many of Guadalupe’s neighbors work in the nearby fields where they face the dual burden of exposure to cancer and respiratory disease-causing pollutants from oil operations and pesticides.

Advocacy by frontline communities and local organizers led Ventura County’s elected leaders to close a dangerous loophole that allowed oil companies to drill using antiquated permits without environmental review or expiration dates.

In 2020, the Ventura County 2040 General Plan was adopted and included several hard-fought policies and ordinances: the first health and safety buffer zone in the country of 1,500 feet for homes and 2,500 feet for schools, limits of flaring of excess fracked gas, and a ban on unnecessary oil trucking. 

But the oil industry staged a multi-pronged attack on democracy and public health policies in Ventura County – using referendums and lawsuits. They filed multiple lawsuits against the county and despite legal intervention by local advocates, the new conservative majority and oil-backed Board of Supervisors took step to weaken these public safety policies. 

Carbon Intensity of CA Oil

California is still one of the largest oil producing states in the country, pumping out over 100 million barrels of oil each year. California’s crude oil is also some of the dirtiest and most climate-damaging in the world. 

Much of California’s crude is notoriously thick and viscous sludge buried deep in hard to reach places. As conventional wells run dry, extraction techniques become increasingly extreme and more energy-intensive, further exacerbating carbon emissions.

Even as oil production declines in the state, the carbon intensity of the oil drilled and refined here is rising — helping to cancel out the health and climate benefits of declining production.

Extreme Climate Impacts

California is ground zero for climate change. Extreme heat waves, floods, superstorms, drought and community wildfire destruction are taking lives and costing billions each year. 

Fires: Drilling and burning fossil fuels has created hotter and drier conditions that make California fires bigger and faster-moving.

Extreme Heat: Heat is the biggest weather-related killer in America according to the EPA.  Extreme heat is especially deadly for young children and the elderly, and for unhoused people and workers who spend their time outside. The number of extreme heat days in California is expected to quadruple over the next 20 years. Lifetime emissions from CA’s oil wells could contribute to thousands more heat-related deaths in California alone. California’s Department of Insurance pegged the cost of seven recent heat waves at $7.7 billion.

Flooding: California has faced an onslaught of back-to-back atmospheric rivers causing severe lowland and coastal flooding across the state. The majority Latine community of Pajaro faced these impacts when a levee failure forced over 3,000 residents to flee their homes in darkness. A recent study found that climate change has doubled the chance of a California megaflood over the next 40 years. The devastation in Pajaro, costing $300 million in damages, is ‘only a taste’ of what is to come in a warmer world.

Drought: Climate change is worsening drought conditions in California. The Western U.S. and northern Mexico are experiencing their driest period in at least 1,200 years. Fossil fuel production uses an exorbitant amount of water compared to wind and solar. From 2018 to 2021 the oil and gas industry used nearly 2 billion gallons of freshwater for drilling operations that could otherwise have supplied communities.

California’s fossil fuel production has been steadily declining since the 1980s, and the oil industry has been quietly shirking responsibility for the mess it’s leaving behind. Companies are walking away from tens of thousands of idle and orphaned wells across the state with no plan to clean them up. 

The longer wells sit idle, the more dangerous they become.

California lets companies keep ‘dangerous’ oil wells unplugged forever

Capital & Main

Oct 18, 2023

Idle and orphaned wells are known to leak methane and the carcinogen benzene, putting the climate and public health at risk. These wells are overwhelmingly located in rural and predominantly Latine counties with household incomes far lower than the state average. 

Oil companies have failed to put up bonds to cover the cost of properly plugging wells — potentially saddling taxpayers with billions in cleanup costs – even though plugging these orphan and idle wells will create thousands of jobs statewide.

An idle well on Larry Saldana’s Kern County farm sprayed oil on his organic fruit trees, buildings, vehicles — even his miniature goats. Months later, Larry’s property still has not been cleaned up and methane was detected leaking from the wellhead, even after the company said it had been cleaned up.

Lobbying

The oil and gas industry spends more on lobbying than just about anyone in Sacramento. Chevron and oil trade group Western States Petroleum Association were two of the top three highest spenders on lobbying for four straight legislative sessions, including in 2023. They have spent a staggering $188 million lobbying our state government since 2005. Big Oil’s dirty money is buying ballot initiatives while killing and gutting bills that would protect California communities from their toxic fossil fuel pollution.

Oil companies top big year in lobbyist spending

CalMatters

Nov 9, 2023

Thanks to over a decade of community organizing and advocacy, we’ve reached a pivotal turning point in the campaign to move California beyond fossil fuels. Check out the progress we’ve made on our three demands:

Health Buffers

After a decade of advocacy led by environmental justice groups, California passed a law in 2022 to ban new oil wells near communities and help phase out drilling in neighborhoods.

Gov. Newsom signs SB 1137, creating a safety buffer between homes and oil wells in California

LA Daily News

Sept 16, 2022

California lawmakers OK buffer zones between new oil wells and homes, schools

LA Times

Aug 31, 2022

This was a monumental win to protect frontline communities. The Governor’s backing and strong leadership from Sen. Gonzalez, Sen. Limón, and other legislative champions were a huge catalyst for this bill passing through the legislature.

Oil Well Cleanup & Just Transition

California oil production is at the end of its life cycle because the vast majority of the state’s oil reserves are tapped. Companies are walking away from their responsibilities, leaving behind a polluting mess of unplugged oil wells and trying to dump clean up costs on the public. We need to minimize the damage this dying industry leaves on its way out the door with a just transition that benefits California’s workers, communities, and economies. The good news is–the oil industry can clean up its toxic legacy of unplugged wells by creating tens of thousands of jobs in the process.

In 2023, a one-of-its-kind coalition came together, California Labor for Climate Jobs, that includes unions representing teachers, utility workers, farmworkers, janitors, and others. Their first policy platform calls for investments in safety nets for oil and gas workers, including healthcare, relocation support, and training programs for well-paying union jobs in climate-friendly fields. Their advocacy helped achieve a key victory by securing a pilot fund to support oil and gas workers displaced by the industry’s decline.

Permits issued to plug idle oil wells have increased in recent years, and California took a major step toward making the oil industry clean up its own mess with the 2023 passage of the Orphan Well Prevention Act and the 2024 passage of the Idle Well Prevention Act. But the state faces a growing crisis that soon the entire nation will confront. By holding the oil industry accountable for cleanup, California can lead the nation in a just transition.

Senate votes to raise oil well bond requirements

The Bakersfield Californian

Sep 13, 2023