LOS ANGELES, California — Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) traveled to Baldwin Hills to sign legislation restricting oil and gas facilities — and removing the pumpjacks behind him, ending a century of the oil and industry’s role in the area.
AB 2716 will close the Baldwin Hills oil facilities, which existed prior to the surrounding area becoming developed for residential use, but which now sit inside what has become L.A.’s most prominent middle-class black neighborhood.
AB 3233 will give local authorities more power to prohibit oil and gas drilling. AB 1866 will expand on existing law and increase and accelerate the penalties for not capping idle wells within existing oil and gas production facilities.
Earlier this year, the oil industry abandoned efforts to put a referendum on the 2024 ballot to reverse a 2022 law, SB 1137, that created buffer zones around schools and homes to restrict oil and gas exploration and development.
Newsom was surrounded by community leaders and activists, including a physician, who said living near the oil and gas facilities had caused health problems, and that they looked forward to removing the pumpjack “dinosaurs.”
In his remarks, Newsom blasted the oil and gas industry, accusing it of “price gouging” — a claim that fellow Californian Vice President Kamala Harris has used in her economic proposals for fighting inflation nationwide.
“They’re ripping you off,” Newsom said. “They’ve been gouging. They’ve been taking advantage of you. … They’re lying to you. … They’re the polluted heart of this climate crisis. … This time, we are not falling prey to those lies.”
The oil and gas industry has responded to such claims in the past by saying that it is California’s regulatory environment, not the industry, that is responsible for high prices. But Newsom has rejected such counterarguments.
He noted that the California state legislature will meet Thursday to deal with high gas prices in the state. (Newsom has used such sessions before, which never reconsider the state’s gas taxes, regulations, or cap-and-trade system.)
When asked by Breitbart News about the economic impact of shutting the Baldwin Hills production facilities, and on jobs in particular, the governor evaded the question but said that, in general, the same workforce responsible for operating oil and gas wells would be responsible for capping idle wells. He also said the state was creating jobs in “clean energy.”
Asked by Breitbart News if the fossil fuel industry had a future in the state, Newsom replied: ““If they clean up their act.”
He said that the state could look forward to a “brighter, cleaner, greener future” with renewable energy sources.
A local reporter asked about a murder Wednesday morning on the L.A. Metro bus system, one of five this year. Local officials present insisted that crime on the system was “de minimis” compared to crime in society.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
