Center for Biological Diversity
KEEP IT IN THE GROUND
Challenge
Despite its record for environmental leadership, California is one of the largest oil-producing states in the nation. What’s worse, extracting toxic fossil fuels often occurs in the middle of densely populated Black and Latino communities, just 30 feet away from homes and schools. It’s a dangerous and unhealthy practice.
Approach
There’s nothing we love more than helping community activists put up a fight.
This fight was led by a group of Angelenos impacted by urban oil drilling who came together to call out the hypocrisy of their elected officials and to show the oil industry the limits of its reach. When a community takes on a giant like the oil industry, the main task is to level the playing field.
Together with the Center for Biological Diversity, RALLY supported several community coalitions, including STAND-L.A. and the statewide Last Chance Alliance, to do just that.
Using just about every tool in the toolbox—marches and demonstrations, engaging celebrities like climate activist Greta Thunberg, crashing city council hearings, organizing “toxic tours” led by community members, and targeting digital ads at elected officials—we helped make oil drilling into an issue that the Governor and Los Angeles’s leaders couldn’t ignore.
And, fitting for Hollywood, this campaign’s story has a good ending.
In October 2021, Governor Newsom announced regulations to prohibit new wells or facilities within 3,200 feet of sensitive locations like homes, schools, and hospitals, and required additional pollution controls for existing wells. Just a few months later, in January 2022, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously voted to ban drilling within city limits and evaluate how to phase out existing wells altogether.
Related Work
RALLY has worked arm-in-arm with many other local activists on a range of issues, including Community Coalition, Destination Crenshaw, River LA, and Tipping Point Community, among others.