An oil pumpjack operates at the Inglewood Oil Field on January 28, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
An oil company with a drilling operation in the Wilmington neighborhood of Los Angeles has filed a lawsuit against the city to ban new wells and phase out all drilling within city limits.
Warren Resources, which operates the 10-acre, oil-extraction site, filed a lawsuit Tuesday in LA Superior Court seeking to block the ordinance from taking effect. The company argued that the city failed to conduct an adequate environmental review of the potential effects of stopping the extraction.
The lawsuit also argued that the ordinance violates the California Environmental Quality Act, the city’s general plan, and state and federal statutes. Warren said the legislation would force it to close its operations, which are located entirely within the LA area.
city in december Voted to immediately ban new extraction and shut down existing operations within 20 years, which is one of the strongest environmental policies ever enacted in the state of California. LA has 26 oil and gas fields and over 5,000 active and inactive wells in areas such as Wilmington, Harbor Gateway, Downtown, West LA, South LA and the Northwest San Fernando Valley.
“The City has failed to ask the necessary questions and obtain the necessary evidence at every turn, pursuing every process legally required along the way, and has resulted in a woefully poor environmental document basing its approval and adoption of the ordinance,” Warren’s attorneys wrote in the lawsuit.
Ian Thompson, a spokesman for the LA City Attorney’s Office, declined to comment on the lawsuit. Warren’s attorneys did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
The ordinance has been praised by residents who have complained for years that pollution from nearby drilling has harmed their health. The oil industry has largely denounced the city’s ban, arguing that phasing out production would increase gas prices and make LA dependent on foreign energy.
Wilmington is a predominantly working class and Latino community of over 50,000 people and is surrounded by oil refineries and pumpjack included Between its public parks and schools. The community has the highest rates of asthma and cancer in the state, according to a report By non-profit communities for a better environment.
More than half a million people in LA live within a quarter-mile of active oil wells, which produce dangerous air pollutants such as benzene, hydrogen sulfide, particulate matter and formaldehyde. About one-third of wells in LA are located outside drill sites, among parks, schools and homes.
People living near drilling sites are at higher risk preterm birthasthma, respiratory disease and cancer, research shows, and drilling disproportionately harms black and Latino residents.
Several other oil entities, including E&B Natural Resources Management Corp. and Hillcrest Beverly Oil Corp., also filed a separate lawsuit against the city on Tuesday over the ordinance.
Last year, California lawmakers voted ban new oil wells within 3,200 feet of homes, schools and other populated areas after years of complaints by residents and activist groups.