SACRAMENTO, Calif.— The California Senate Appropriations Committee passed a bill today that would affirm local governments’ authority to protect communities by limiting or banning oil and gas operations, methods and locations. The bill will now go to a full state Senate vote.

Assembly Bill 3233 is sponsored by the Center for Biological Diversity. It affirms the right of communities to make decisions about oil and gas operations that pose grave threats to public health, wildlife and the climate.

“This is a big step forward for communities facing oil and gas pollution who want their local officials to take action,” said Hollin Kretzmann, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “We can’t let the oil industry use threats and intimidation to kill vital protections from industry pollution. It’s time for the Senate and the governor to make this clarifying bill the law of the land.”

“Communities should be able to make decisions about the oil and gas projects in their own backyards,” said Dr. Laura Solorio, president of Protect Monterey County. “This bill is vital to protecting democracy as well as our health and environment.”

In recent years, communities like Monterey, San Benito and Los Angeles have taken steps to limit oil and gas operations. Such local measures have faced fierce oil industry opposition.

In Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. County of Monterey, the California Supreme Court in 2023 overturned parts of Monterey’s overwhelmingly voter-approved Measure Z that would have phased out wastewater disposal and banned the drilling of new wells. The oil industry has weaponized that decision to attack local ordinances that limit drilling, such as those passed in the city and county of Los Angeles.

Assembly Bill 3233 would clarify local authority to protect frontline communities and other residents from dangerous pollution, safety hazards and greenhouse gas emissions caused by fossil fuel extraction.

The bill now goes to the full state Senate. If passed it will receive a concurrence vote in the Assembly before moving to the governor to sign into law.