Community Groups Will Have a Voice in Lawsuit Challenging CA Oil and Gas Setbacks Rule  

The Superior Court of Los Angeles County ruled yesterday that public interest organizations can intervene in a lawsuit brought by private oil and gas interests against the State of California’s setbacks law Senate Bill 1137. This law was enacted in 2022 to prevent new oil and gas drilling permits within 3,200 feet of homes, schools, playgrounds, parks, hospitals, and other similarly “sensitive” spaces. The goal of SB 1137 is to improve public health by reducing exposure to pollution.

Committee for a Better Shafter, Physicians for Social Responsibility – Los Angeles, and Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment (CRPE), represented by Earthjustice and CRPE, are community groups that advocated for the passage of SB 1137. They represent and support frontline community residents in Los Angeles and Kern Counties who live, learn, work, and recreate within SB 1137’s health protection zones.

“This decision affirms the importance of the protections offered by SB 1137 to frontline communities like Shafter, which are harmed by neighborhood drilling. This law represents a promise of health and dignity for families living near oil wells, and intervention ensures that those most impacted have a seat at the table in defending it,” said Anabel Marquez, president of Committee for a Better Shafter.

Maintaining SB 1137’s protective measures is critical to public health across the state. Over three million Californians, or 8% of the state’s population, currently live within one kilometer (or 3,200 ft.) of an active well, and most are people of color and low-income people who are disproportionately impacted by the associated health harms. Close proximity to oil and gas development is connected to negative health impacts like reduced fetal growth, preterm birth, asthma, and reduced lung function.

“The oil industry has shamelessly worked to undermine the health and safety buffer zones that communities and health professionals fought so hard to win under SB 1137. Yesterday’s court decision to allow community organizations to intervene affirms our right to defend these protections. Families deserve clean air, safe neighborhoods, and freedom from toxic drilling — and we are committed to making sure these life-saving protections are upheld,” said Martha Dina Argüello, Physicians for Social Responsibility – Los Angeles Executive Director.

“This decision gives hope to frontline families who have lived with the harms of oil drilling. SB 1137 is about protecting our health, and our voices must be part of defending it,” said Juan Flores, Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment Community Organizer.

The current lawsuit is the oil industry’s third attempt to block the setback, following unsuccessful lobbying efforts to kill the bill before its passage and a failed referendum. The petitioners include an industry trade group called Native Oil Producers and Employees of California, along with individual operators and mineral rights holders in the Los Angeles region.

“The court rightly recognized that communities most directly impacted by oil and gas pollution should have a voice in defending legislation designed to protect them,” said Elizabeth Fisher an attorney at Earthjustice.