“We will hold the oil industry accountable for their pollution and public health impacts,” said Assemblymember Gregg Hart, author of one of the bills.
With pumpjacks nodding in the background, California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday signed new laws to hold oil companies accountable and protect neighborhoods from oil development, protections community groups have fought more than a decade to win.
“I just want to breathe for a moment because it has been a long and winding road to get here,” said Martha Dina Argüello, executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility Los Angeles, standing in front of active oil wells in Los Angeles’ Inglewood Oil Field.
“This moment has been fueled by years of persistent and principled organizing by many of the community organizations that are represented here,” Argüello said. “Communities that have lived with the harmful effects of oil drilling and pollution where we live, work, play and learn.”
Of more than 1 million Californians who live near active oil and gas wells, more than 60 percent are in Los Angeles County and most are Black, Latino or socioeconomically marginalized, researchers reported last year.