The owner of the Inglewood Oil Field in Los Angeles County is taking the state of California to court over a law that requires it to either stop production and plug its wells or face hefty fines.
Sentinel Peak Resources, the owner of the Inglewood Oil Field, filed a lawsuit this week claiming that the law, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in September, is unconstitutional, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times on Thursday.
The law is one of several new measures aimed at reducing pollution by giving local governments more power to shut down so-called “idle wells” — those that aren’t actively producing but haven’t been properly sealed — and impose fines on companies operating low-producing wells at the Inglewood site.
The 1,000-acre oil field, located southwest of downtown Los Angeles, has about 820 wells that have not been plugged, including 420 that are actively pumping. The Los Angeles Times noted that approximately 80% of these active wells are classified as low-producing, which means they yield less than 15 barrels of oil or 60,000 cubic feet of gas per day.
In their lawsuit, Sentinel Peak’s attorneys argue that the law is an unlawful effort to force the company out of business. They claim that the mandatory fines, which could reach significant amounts, violate federal and state prohibitions against excessive penalties.
The suit describes the fines as “grossly disproportionate,” without any clear upper limit or connection to actual harm caused by the wells.
The California Department of Conservation’s Geological Energy Management Division, which oversees oil and gas regulation, has declined to comment on the ongoing legal matter.
Meanwhile, Assemblyman Isaac Bryan, who represents the area and authored the legislation, has pledged to defend the law. Bryan, a Democrat, emphasized that local communities have been fighting for years to close the oil field.
“Our community has fought for decades to close this dangerous, low-producing oil field, and we will stand strong in court to protect the health of those frontline communities,” Bryan told the Times. “The people of California made their voices heard through their legislature: dangerous oil wells do not belong next to our neighborhoods.”
