LOS ANGELES – The County of Los Angeles and Mayor Eric Garcetti today welcomed the release of the Just Transition Strategy – a first-ever framework for creating a pathway for workers in oil drilling to find new employment as the City and County begin phasing out oil extraction in Los Angeles.
The Board of Supervisors approved its ordinance to ban new oil drilling and phase out existing oil extraction in unincorporated Los Angeles on November 4, 2022. In February, Garcetti signed a directive to phase out oil and gas drilling in the City of Los Angeles, and last week, the City Council voted to phase out all oil drilling in L.A. and ban new wells. Garcetti is set to sign the ordinance later today.
As part of the work to advance policies to phase out oil drilling, the City and County created the Just Transition Task Force, which is made up of stakeholders from labor groups, Tribal Nations, the oil industry, academic institutions, and state and local government entities, as well as environmental justice leaders and workforce development experts. The Task Force convened more than two dozen times in 2021 and 2022 to develop recommendations to:
Provide oil extraction workers impacted by phase-out policies with the necessary support to transition their skills into jobs of comparable, family-sustaining compensation or retirement in ways that promote livelihoods and dignity.
Properly remediate closed oil well sites and integrate input from frontline communities and sovereign Native Nations, on whose ancestral homelands Los Angeles is built, in community visioning, remediation and land use redevelopment planning processes; and
Leverage public and private funds to equitably and sustainably finance and coordinate the successful implementation of the Just Transition Strategy.
The recommendations include 19 specific strategies to achieve these goals, including the creation of a Workers Advisory Council to gather input and feedback from oil workers during the phase-out and solutions to ensure robust community participation in future land reuse planning. The full set of recommendations can be found here.
The Task Force was facilitated by the Just Transition Fund, a philanthropic hybrid that provides technical assistance and grants to transitioning energy communities. The City and County worked with Intelligent Partnerships to determine that there are 664 oil extraction workers in the city and unincorporated L.A. County. Intelligent Partnerships conducted on-the-ground employee outreach across four large oil production sites in the City and County, during which over 60 percent of oil workers surveyed indicated that green energy was their first choice for re-employment. Intelligent Partnerships identified industries with job opportunities that offer wage parity and skill alignment—and up to $620 million dollars in state and federal funds available to support oil extraction worker transitions.
The Task Force will continue meeting quarterly to advise, guide, and support the County and City in the implementation of its recommendations.
“The LA Just Transition Task Force is a national model for tangibly putting people first while phasing out fossil fuel extraction. The Just Transition Strategy released today demonstrates that L.A. brings the same level of ambition to elevating and supporting workers as we do to phasing out fossil fuel extraction. This strategy proves that an environmental win for the communities most impacted is also a win for workers,” said Holly J. Mitchell, Supervisor to the Second District.
“Oil drilling has always been a part of L.A.’s history, but today, we’re creating a new legacy for Los Angeles,” said Garcetti. “The Just Transition Task Force is a recognition of our responsibility to support the workers who will feel the impact of this transition the most — and show the world how we can turn this environmental imperative into an economic opportunity and build the green and just future our children and grandchildren deserve.”
“The era of trading our clean air, water, and soil for fuel must end. But we don’t have to choose between our environment and good jobs – we can and will have both. This strategy is going to help light our path toward environmental justice for all communities, all while preserving and expanding economic opportunity,” said Chair of the Board of Supervisors, Janice Hahn, Supervisor to the Fourth District. “The Task Force brought together stakeholders from a big cross-section of the city and county. It’s clear that while challenges are shared by all, so is our drive to find solutions.”
“The Just Transition Strategy reflects many of my priorities for environmental justice and worker protections,” said Hilda L. Solis, Supervisor to the First District. “I’ve spent much of my public service career focused on uplifting workers, and at the same time, empowering communities bearing a disproportionate burden from heavy industry. I applaud the cooperation between all the various stakeholders and look forward to supporting the Strategy’s implementation.”
“Our County’s oil extraction workers are a critical part of the industry’s workforce, our communities, and our regional economy,” said Kathryn Barger, Supervisor to the Fifth District. “The work we’ve done to attract employers to L.A. in sectors like zero emissions transportation manufacturing is an important investment that I fully support. The Just Transition Strategy report shows that we can transition workers into those kinds of careers with dignity. It’s a thoughtful plan, developed by critical stakeholders, which gives me confidence that we are on a path where our sustainable future has a place for all of our workers. Although change can be difficult, every transition is an opportunity to ensure that we are advancing our goals of protecting our environment, our communities, and our workforce.”
