Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass signed a revised ordinance on October 29 prohibiting new oil and gas drilling across the city and setting a 20-year deadline for most existing operations to end. The Los Angeles City Council approved the measure the day before. The ordinance also limits expansion and redevelopment, with exceptions for work needed to address health, safety, or environmental threats.
The measure classifies existing extraction as a nonconforming land use. Under the city’s description, operations must cease within 20 years of the ordinance’s effective date, unless an earlier deadline applies.
The city first adopted a drilling phaseout in 2022. After a trial court ruled against it in September 2024, the Council rescinded the ordinance in 2025. Also in September 2024, California enacted AB 3233, authorizing local governments to prohibit oil and gas operations or impose stronger local restrictions.
In September 2025, the City Planning department released a revised ordinance that relied on the authority under AB 3233. The proposal and staff report went before the City Planning Commission in December 2025, when the commission recommended City Council adoption. The city also released a Mitigated Negative Declaration for public review, assessing potential environmental effects of the proposal.
The revised ordinance again puts Los Angeles on a path to end extraction, while leaving existing operations in place during the phaseout period.
The citywide policy covers oil wells in neighborhoods where residents and environmental justice groups have raised concerns about nearby extraction.
In January 2023, Los Angeles County approved a new ordinance to ban new oil and gas drilling in unincorporated areas and implement a plan to phase out existing operations over 20 years.