In 2022, our Club voted to endorse State Senator Lena Gonzalez’s SB1137 which prohibited drilling for oil within 3200 feet of where we eat, sleep and play. As soon as it was signed into law, the oil companies spent 30 million dollars in 90 days to gather enough signatures to pause the law. In his recent town hall the author of that bill, Assembly Member Bryan, explained that the oil companies: “…paid folks per signature to go stand outside Albertsons and stand outside of schools and lie to folks. They would say, ‘Do you like people drilling for oil by your house? NO? Great. Sign this.‘ And if you didn’t read that and you were a registered voter and you put your signature down, they counted you.”
Our Club voted last year to join the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy California, a coalition of public health professionals, environmental justice groups, community leaders, and youth joining together to defend our protections from toxic oil drilling. We hope you will vote to keep SB1137 this fall.
Local and national icons showed up for the launch of their ballot initiative, including Club members LA County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, CC City Council Member Freddy Puza, and former CC Mayor Meghan Sahli-Wells (above) and actor/activist Jane Fonda, Governor Gavin Newsom, and actor and former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (below).
