An “Oleaginous Civilization”

Abstract

Urban oil production is a key factor in Los Angeles’s environmental, social, and economic history. Oil workers and their families experienced hazardous conditions in oil-field communities that added to Los Angeles’s suburban sprawl. In response, oil workers were in the forefront of labor activism seeking regulatory action. The dire ecological impact of oil production by both backyard operators and major oil companies, including subsidence, was met by only piecemeal efforts at environmental regulation. Yet we adhere to a cultural trope of oil as progress.