A California law that bans drilling new oil wells near places like homes and schools will take effect soon after the oil industry said it would withdraw a referendum from the November ballot asking voters to block it., never took effect because the California Independent Petroleum Association gathered enough signatures to place a referendum on the ballot asking voters to overturn it.
In asking voters to block the law, the oil industry's strategy was to portray the it as an “energy shutdown.” They said it would only increase the state's dependence on foreign oil and contribute to California's high gas prices, which remain among the highest in the country. Supporters of the law countered by saying these oil wells spew harmful pollution into the air that increase the risk things like asthma and cancer.
The state Legislature had been applying pressure to the oil industry, too. Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, a Democrat from Los Angeles whose district includes the largest urban oil field in the United States, had introduced a bill that would have fined oil companies $10,000 per day from operating oil wells near homes and schools that produced less than 15 barrels per day.
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