After dedicating more than $25 million toward canvassing and political ads, California's oil and gas industry announced it will withdraw a hotly contested referendum from the November ballot that sought to remove restrictions on drilling near homes and schools. The California Independent Petroleum Assn.
'This is an industry that's going away anyway,' she said. 'What the state needs to do is oversee this ongoing decline in a way that minimizes the additional damage that this dying industry does on its way out the door.' But the state Petroleum Assn. didn't concede defeat — it vowed to fight California's well-capping law and similar legislation in court.