Culver City set the standard for closing down oil wells deemed too close to residences and public recreational areas. But now Sentinel Peak Oil is suing the state over the law the enforces that judgement.
Sentinel Peak, the current owner and operator of the Inglewood Oil Field – about 10% of which is located within the borders of Culver City – is suing the state of California over Assembly Bill 2617. Sentinel is saying that the law is “unconstitutional” and will put “unreasonably high [financial] penalties” on the company, forcing it to halt operations.
Culver City sealed the deal in December of 2023, with the oil company agreeing to plug all 38 of the oil wells within city borders by 2030.
According to the Los Angeles Times, attorneys for Sentinel Peak Oil noted “The monetary penalties imposed by AB 2716 are grossly disproportional to the gravity of the offense that it is designed to punish,” the lawsuit reads. “The imposed penalties are fixed and mandatory with no apparent upper limit.They have no relationship to any actual harm incurred by neighboring uses.”
But the gravity of the offense is what lawmakers stood on; Assembly member Isaac Bryan, who wrote the assembly bill, stated “It is the right and prerogative of the government to protect its people.”
People living next to the planet’s largest urban oil extraction operation have plenty of anecdotal evidence about cancer clusters, childhood leukemia, and other diseases. But it’s not just about the word on the street.
Years of studies in regard to the health risks of living next to an active oil field have shown an increased risk of cancer and other illnesses. “Living near oil and gas facilities …[residents] may be exposed to hazardous air pollutants, including carcinogens like benzene, [posing] health risks above levels deemed acceptable by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” according to researchers at the Colorado School of Public Health, CU Boulder, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the University of California, Irvine.
“Our community has stood strong for decades to close this dangerous low-producing oil field, and we will stand strong in court to protect those frontline communities who have long deserved the right to live a full and healthy life,” Bryan said.
The State’s oil and gas regulator, the California Department of Conservation’s Geological Energy Management Division, declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Judith Martin-Straw
Photo credit – Sacramento Observer
