SACRAMENTO, California — Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a trio of oil and gas bills Wednesday in Los Angeles that will clamp down on in-state production in the nation’s seventh-largest oil-producing state.
The three Assembly bills allow local governments to restrict drilling more tightly than the state does, to speed up permanent closures of idle wells and to impose hefty daily fines that are likely to shut down low-producing wells in the city of Inglewood, in southwestern Los Angeles County.
Why it matters: The bills align with Newsom’s aggressive push to regulate oil and gas production and markets as he attacks Big Oil for California’s high gas prices and climate change.
Bills: AB 3233, from Assemblymember Dawn Addis, lets local governments ban drilling and ban specific drilling methods in their jurisdiction. The California Supreme Court has struck down local initiatives to do that in Monterey and Los Angeles counties.
