I am smiling for Nalleli Cobo today, the young activist who has spent her short life recovering from illness related to growing up 30 feet from an oil well and fighting against the oil drilling industry to ban wells near communities.

The oil drillers have just agreed to pull back their ballot referendum challenging a state law, SB 1137 (Gonzalez), that bans oil well permits for wells within 3200 feet of a community. They made the withdrawal in the face a powerful community coalition led by Nalleli and Jane Fonda that had the financial backing of philanthropist Wendy Schmidt and the support of governors Newsom and Schwarzenegger.

Nalleli was a honoree at our last Rage for Justice Awards and her story brought the room to tears. At the age of 9, she organized to shut down the well making her family and community sick. She helped found a grassroots campaign called “People Not Pozos,” Spanish for “wells.” 

“When I was about 11, I was diagnosed with asthma,” Nalleli said. “By the time I turned 19, we had shut down the drilling in our South L.A. neighborhood, but not before I was diagnosed with stage 2 reproductive cancer. I lost my ability to bear children as a result. After three surgeries, eight minor procedures, three rounds of chemotherapy and six weeks of radiation, I was cancer-free as of two years ago, at 20.

“My experience, like that of others who live in neighborhoods polluted by oil drilling, is a constant reminder that those in power do not value our health and well-being. It’s a signal that some communities are expendable, that our lives don’t matter as much as the fossil fuel industry’s profits.”

The ban on community wells that goes into effect today after the drillers withdraw their referendum shows that communities do count and lives do matter.

Jane Fonda, introducing Nalleli at the Rage, said, of the referendum, “This is a fight we cannot lose. If the oil companies win, really attacking democracy and attacking people’s health, if they win in overturning the setback bill, this is going to go global. What happens in California goes everywhere. We can’t let them win.”

Senator Lena Gonzalez, the author of the ban and now Senate Majority Leader, held tough in not giving the companies any exemptions for maintenance permits in exchange for their withdrawal.

These three powerful women – Nalleli Cobo, Lena Gonzalez, and Jane Fonda — stared down the oil drillers and the drillers blinked. 

Assembly members Isaac Bryan and Laura Friedman did their part with strong bills creating big fines for low production wells in the community setback zone and new liability for community drillers for those who develop cancer, birth defects or asthma.

Bryan’s bill, sponsored by Consumer Watchdog, AB 2716, created a $10,000 per day fine for 83% of the wells in the setback zone that produce less than 15 barrels of oil per day. He pushed the bill through the Senate Natural Resources Committee Tuesday, just before the withdrawal, and agreed to narrow the scope of the bill if the drillers withdrew the referendum. Friedman’s bill, which will not go forward now, was an ever-present threat for the drillers. 

The oil drillers realized they had more to lose than win by challenging an unpopular referendum against a powerful coalition and potentially losing a lot more in the legislative process.

It’s a victory that thousands of community advocates like Nalleli have fought for for decades. I am smiling for all of them today.