By Eric Eisnhammer, Director of Public Affairs & Public Relations

Growing up in Ventura County, they taught us in school that the native Americans who first inhabited the area used the oil that comes up from the ground to waterproof their canoes. That’s how far back Southern California’s heritage with oil goes. Now, this vital resource has come under attack with Santa Barbara County and the City of Los Angeles proposing one of the most aggressive oil and gas bans we’ve seen in California. 

The proposed bans don’t just stop future development. They set in motion the shutdown of existing production and threaten to strip away the value of privately owned mineral rights across the county.

At the center of these proposals is something called “amortization.” That might sound technical, but the reality is simple. Amortization is a concept meant for businesses that can relocate after a zoning change. A hardware store can move down the road. A restaurant can find a new location. An oil field can’t.

Mineral rights only have value if they can be produced where they exist. Once production is forced to stop, that value doesn’t transfer somewhere else. It disappears.

That’s not a typical zoning decision. It’s something far more serious.

NARO-California has made that clear in formal legal letters submitted to officials in Santa Barbara County and the City of Los Angeles. In these letters, our organization laid out the legal and constitutional issues with the proposed ordinances, including serious concerns about their reliance on legislation we believe to be unconstitutional and their attempt to apply amortization to depleting assets like oil and gas interests.

We also made it clear that we are prepared to take legal action if necessary.

This is not new ground for NARO-California. When Monterey County attempted a similar ban, we stood alongside 84 royalty owners listed as co-plaintiffs. We took the fight all the way to the California Supreme Court. The result was a unanimous decision rejecting the County’s overreach.

We are prepared to do it again. Santa Barbara and Los Angeles have now been put on notice.

This is about more than just two localities in Southern California. What happens here will set the tone for whether local governments across California believe they can eliminate oil production and erase private property rights without compensation.

We intend to make sure they understand they cannot.

But this fight isn’t just about legal arguments. It’s about people. Royalty owners. Families. Individuals who depend on this income and who have built long-term plans around assets they were told they had the right to produce.

If those rights can be taken here, they can be taken anywhere.

That’s why now is the time to get involved. America’s prosperity derives from a land blessed with abundance, a people driven by hard work and big dreams, and a government that believes man has the right to build those dreams unencumbered by unreasonable restraints.

Visit NARO-CA.org/YES to read the legal notice, learn more about what we’re doing to fight back, stay informed, and stand with California royalty owners.

America’s Founders believed in freedom, in abundance, and that our way of life can only be preserved by a willingness to stand strong against those who would take it away. Today, we stand on the shoulders of such great men and women and say the rights of oil and gas mineral and royalty owners are worthy of defending.