An oil company sued the city of Los Angeles on Tuesday over its recent law to ban the drilling of new oil and gas wells and remove existing ones within city limits for the next two decades.
Warren Resources filed the lawsuit to stop the city ordinance from taking effect. The company said the law will effectively shut down its operations because it is engaged in drilling for oil and gas solely in the Los Angeles area, where it operates 244 wells and produces about 1,800 barrels of oil per day, according to court documents.
“Warren Resources has spent millions to consolidate our operations into a single, all-electric location with an impeccable environmental record,” James A. Watt, Warren’s president, said in a statement. “Shutting down our operations puts the City, and its taxpayers, at a heavy burden.”
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The lawsuit also accused the city of failing to conduct a proper environmental review of the measure.
The Los Angeles city attorney declined to comment.
The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously in favor of the measure last year after more than a decade of complaints from residents that contamination from the wells was affecting their health.
Warren Resources filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles, California, alleging that the city failed to conduct a proper environmental review of the measure.
(FoxNews)
Los Angeles was once an oil boom town. Many of its oil fields are now depleted, but it still has several productive ones. According to the city controller’s office, there were 780 active and 287 inactive wells in Los Angeles in 2018. An inactive well is one that is not working, but has not been permanently sealed, so it could return to production.
Many more wells are located just outside the Los Angeles city limits, in Carson, Inglewood, and Long Beach.
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Researchers at the University of Southern California in a 2021 study found that people living near wells in two Los Angeles neighborhoods, University Park and Jefferson Park, reported significantly higher rates of wheezing, eye and nose irritation, pain sore throat and dizziness than neighbors who live further away. outside. Both communities are predominantly non-white with large Black and Latino communities, according to the US Census.
Statewide, lawmakers voted in 2022 to ban new oil wells within 3,200 feet of schools, homes, and other community sites. The California Independent Petroleum Association is trying to get a referendum on the ballot to block the law. The state must announce by the end of February whether it qualifies for the ballot, which would put the law on hold until voters turn out.
