The Los Angeles Times – Opinion: I grew up next to an L.A. oil well. California can protect others from what I went through

By Nalleli Cobo, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-04-24/oil-drilling-setbacks-california-legislature

I grew up 30 feet from an oil well. We couldn’t open the windows of our South L.A. home because of what was in the air. I couldn’t play outside for more than a few minutes without feeling sick. 

At the age of 9, I started organizing to shut down the drilling that was making me, my mother, my sister and our community sick. I helped found a grassroots campaign called “People Not Pozos,” Spanish for “wells.” Over a decade later, it’s a campaign I and others are continuing across California as toxic drilling continues in our midst.

When I was about 11, I was diagnosed with asthma. 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.

Last year, the California Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom finally acted to protect people in communities like mine. They enacted Senate Bill 1137, by Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach), which prohibits new oil extraction within 3,200 feet of a home, school or community. But the oil industry responded by spending tens of millions of dollars to qualify a ballot referendum that puts the law on hold until voters can decide the issue in November 2024.

Meanwhile, the drilling goes on, putting more people at risk.

It’s time for the Legislature to go further. A bill up for its first committee hearing Tuesday would help hold oil drillers legally responsible for the harms they cause by drilling so close to where people live. SB 556, also by Gonzalez, would make oil drillers presumptively liable for illnesses linked to their operations within the setback zone.

Scientific evidence cited in the record supporting the setback legislation shows that living near oil and gas production increases the risk of asthma, other respiratory problems, preterm births, high-risk pregnancies and cancer.

Stanford researchers found in a 2020 study that pregnant women who lived near oil wells in the San Joaquin Valley were up to 14% more likely to experience a spontaneous preterm birth, the leading cause of infant death, and that the repercussions were most pronounced among Latina and Black women. A 2021 review of studies by World Health Organization researchers found that people who live near oil and gas drilling are exposed to harmful pollution and at greater risk of developing several different types of cancer. And a California Geologic Energy Management Division scientific advisory panel concluded with a “high level of certainty” the same year that living near oil and gas extraction is associated with “adverse perinatal and respiratory outcomes.”

SB 556 would help Californians who develop such conditions hold oil drillers responsible if they have lived within 3,200 feet of extraction and companies did not use the best available technologies to protect them. Fossil fuel drillers operating within the setback zones would face penalties of $250,000 to $1 million in addition to damages if they can’t prove they took measures to mitigate pollution or that something else caused the condition.

The legislation would essentially shift the burden of proof from communities to polluters. If oil drillers choose to continue to ignore the scientific evidence that they’re sickening surrounding communities, they would assume the risk of significant legal and financial penalties.

Protecting us with laws like SB 556 is the job we elected lawmakers to do. All Californians have a right to breathe clean air, drink clean water and live in a healthy environment. But those with the least resources and political power are most likely to bear the brunt of pollution and climate change.

In the Los Angeles Basin alone, 1.7 million people live within a mile of an active oil or gas well, more than 200,000 live within 2,500 feet, and more than 32,000 within 328 feet.

Oil drillers claim that restricting crude oil production will raise California’s already high gasoline prices. But economists say the state’s gas prices have nothing to do with local production levels.

We can’t continue to prioritize corporate profits over the health and well-being of Californians. The fight to put people before pozos persists.

Nalleli Cobo is an environmental justice advocate and the winner of the 2022 Goldman Environmental Prize for North America.

Latest Energy Videos
Video thumbnail
Who is Behind SB 540?
02:29
Video thumbnail
ABC 7: Controversial CA Energy Bill Moves Forward
08:15
Video thumbnail
KCBS-LA (CBS) - Los Angeles, CA: Late-Night Vote Can Spike Gas Prices
02:26
Video thumbnail
KCAL-LA - Los Angeles, CA: How Will Phillips 66 Closing The Refinery Impact Consumers At The Pump?
03:04
Video thumbnail
KCBS-LA (CBS) - Los Angeles, CA: Phillips 66 To Close Refinery
03:01
Video thumbnail
KGO-SF (ABC) - San Francisco, CA: Controversy Over SF's Bottle Bank Pilot
04:40
Video thumbnail
KTLA-LA (CW) - Los Angeles, CA: Newsom Signs Gas Law Aimed At Preventing Spike In Gas Prices
03:14
Video thumbnail
KNBC-LA (NBC) - Los Angeles, CA: New CA Law Aims To Protect Gas Price Spikes
02:14
Video thumbnail
KTTV-LA (FOX) - Los Angeles, CA: New Laws On Oil And Gas In California
03:04
Video thumbnail
Consumer Alert: Newsom Takes on Gasoline Price Spikes
00:31
Video thumbnail
KCBS-LA (CBS) - Los Angeles, CA: Chevron Moving Headquarters to TX
03:03
Video thumbnail
KGTV-SD (ABC) - San Diego, CA: Californians Overcharged For Gas in 2015
01:55
Video thumbnail
KTXL-SAC (FOX) - Sacramento, CA: Oil Windfall Profits Law Under Microscope
06:06
Video thumbnail
KGTV-SD (ABC) - San Diego, CA: Watchdog Blames Oil Industry For High Prices
02:26
Video thumbnail
KGTV-SD (ABC) - San Diego, CA: Who's To Blame For Recent Spikes In Gas Prices?
02:16
Video thumbnail
Support Oil Driller Accountability, AB 3155
00:54
Video thumbnail
Consumer Alert: The Buck Stops This Summer
01:29
Video thumbnail
New Consumer Alert Exposes Deceptive Oil Industry Attack On Governor Newsom
01:39
Video thumbnail
KOVR-SAC (CBS) - Sacramento, CA: Signs Fueling Debate Over Gas Tax
02:24
Video thumbnail
Consumer Alert: More Deceptive Big Oil Ads Targeting California
01:31
Video thumbnail
KGO-SF (ABC) - San Francisco, CA: CRV Fee on Alcohol Starts On January 1st
02:31
Video thumbnail
Consumer Alert: Deceptive Oil Ads
01:38
Video thumbnail
Consumer Alert: Big Oil’s BS Mailer
01:52
Video thumbnail
KABC-LA, CA: Lawmakers Should Prevent Refineries from Selling Expensive Summer Blend of Gas Overseas
02:58
Video thumbnail
KPIX-SF (CBS) - San Francisco, CA: California Gas Prices Are Soaring Again
00:32
Video thumbnail
KCAL-LA - Los Angeles, CA: Gas Prices Skyrocketing
02:52
Video thumbnail
KTLA-LA (CW) - Los Angeles, CA: So Cal Gas Prices Nearing $6 a Gallon
03:20
Video thumbnail
Spectrum News 1 (San Fernando Valley) - Los Angeles, CA: Controversy Over Gas Storage Facility
03:50
Video thumbnail
KFMB-SD (CBS) - San Diego, CA: Gas Tax Increase Takes Effect July 1st
03:23
Video thumbnail
CBS 8 - Los Angeles, CA: What You Need to Know About Gas Prices
02:02
Video thumbnail
KGO-SF (ABC) - San Francisco, CA: BottleBank Update, Is It Really Effective?
02:39
Video thumbnail
Senator Portantino, Shame on You
01:18
Video thumbnail
Senator Portantino: Protect Our Communities From Oil Drillers
00:51
Video thumbnail
KERO-BFL (ABC) - Bakersfield, CA; Oil Drilling Near Homes Can Cause Health and Safety Concerns
03:06
Video thumbnail
KNBC - LA, CA; Consumer Watchdog's Liza Tucker On New Concerns With Santa Susana Field Lab Clean Up
04:09
Video thumbnail
(ABC) - LA, CA; SoCal Edison's New Income Based Proposed Charges Might Not Be As Stable As They Seem
02:40
Video thumbnail
(CBS)-Fresno, CA; Victory For Californians As Bill Passes That Will Regulate Profits Of Oil Refiners
02:17
Video thumbnail
CNBC - Jamie Court Speaks About The Bill That Would Penalize Oil Refineries For Price Gouging
06:39
Video thumbnail
KXTV(ABC) - Sacramento, CA; Governor Newsom Announced A New Deal With Lawmakers To Take On Big Oil
02:56
Video thumbnail
KNBC-LA (NBC) - Los Angeles, CA; Holding Utility Companies Accountable For Power Outages
02:01
Video thumbnail
Consumer Watchdog at CA Senate Energy Cmte 2 22 23
50:54
Video thumbnail
KFMB CW - San Diego, CA; Oil Companies Need to be Held Accountable for High Gas Prices
02:42
Video thumbnail
KTTV (FOX) - Los Angeles, CA; Recap Of Jamie Court's Testimony At The Senate Hearing For Gas Prices
05:07
Video thumbnail
KGTV(ABC) - SD, CA; Jamie Court Will Testify at the Price Gouging Hearing for Rising Gas Prices
01:17
Video thumbnail
KTTV-LA (FOX) - Los Angeles, CA; SoCal Gas Bill Sticker Shock
04:24
Video thumbnail
Spectrum News 1 - Los Angeles, CA; Who Is SoCal Gas Buying Their Gas From?
09:18
Video thumbnail
Why SoCal Gas is at Fault For Doubling Your Natural Gas Bill
01:43
Video thumbnail
KNBC - Los Angeles, CA; Spike In Natural Gas Prices
02:32
Video thumbnail
KCBS - Los Angeles, CA; New Year, New Pain At The Pump
03:02
Latest Energy Report

Subscribe to our newsletter

To be updated with all the latest news, press releases and special reports.