'Our futures will hopefully not be full of emergency room visits, bloody noses, or burdensome health impacts, but a cleaner future where Black and Brown families are the ones protected and valued,' says STAND-LA's Aleyvette. NoDrillingWhereWereLiving
"This is a momentous step forward for Los Angeles, and a clear message we are sending to Big Oil,'' Council Member Mitch O'Farrell, a Democrat who chairs the body's Energy, Climate Change, Environmental Justice, and River committee,Speaking at a press conference before Wednesday's vote, O'Farrell called the council's action"a model for the nation and the world.
Ashley Hernandez—a youth organizer with STAND-L.A. and a resident of the Wilmington neighborhood—said outside City Hall following the vote, "I've lived in the frontlines of neighborhood oil drilling my entire life and can't begin to express what I'm feeling inside being here in this moment after all of the years of work frontline residents, partners and allies have fought for.