First in a series
[Editor’s Note: Members of the public interested in the Baldwin Hills oil field drilling controversy are invited to an open meeting of the Baldwin Hills Community Standards District on Tuesday evening at 6:30. It will be held at the Junior Blind of America quarters, 5300 Angeles Vista Blvd., just south of the Baldwin Hills. 323.295.4555.)
More than half a year has sped by since the now-retired Yvonne Burke and her colleagues on the County Board of Supervisors — with a moderate degree of satisfaction felt by both sides — bid fare the well to a sassy band of sophisticated Westsiders effectively protesting an unprecedentedly ambitious expansion plan in the nearby Baldwin Hills oil fields.
The professionally organized, amazingly well informed and stubbornly insistent citizens group — headed up by the attorneys Ken Kutcher and John Kuechle — was determined to narrow the historically wide-open controls over the oil fields.
From last June until October, an umbrella group representing between one million-plus residents within range of the thousand-acre oil field petitioned — nay, begged — County officials to tighten a harness around the long-established, free-moving oil-drilling company.
Observing from the County’s perspective, sociologists would say that expecting the government to treat the citizens at least fairly if not as an equal was counter-intuitive. What the oil company intended to do by greatly expanding its drilling area was going to reap sizable revenues for the County. No government since Eden has said no to incoming funds.
By comparison, the Westsiders were closer to hobo status. Their best playing card was to prevail upon the government to do the decent thing and protect its citizens by maintaining a clear-air environment.
Did the residents succeed?
That was among numerous questions put this week to Mr. Kuechle of Culver Crest, who, along with his neighbors, has been chasing down the Plains Exploration & Petroleum Co., PXP, since a ruptured night three Januarys ago when PXP sprang a gas leak, awakening, routing — and angering — the hilltop community.
The perceived imprecision of PXP’s response to the potential tragedy convinced numerous residents to get educated and become intricately involved in keeping the environment clean and safe for their families.
“Once this recession or depression started last year,” Mr. Kuechle began, “the price of oil plummeted,” welcome news for worried neighbors, almost a better break than they gained last year in their County government dealings.
“PXP’s desire to drill, I believe, has somewhat declined for that reason. They have not said so. But they have been pushing a little less hard.
“Having oil prices go down is a good thing because I drive to work, and I prefer paying $3 a gallon instead of $5 a gallon.”
Mr. Kuechle’s deliberate approach to life appears to have served well the cause of his Culver Crest neighbors.
Low-key by nature, he did not come within a mile of becoming excited last summer when other colleagues were emoting from week to week, worried that they never would achieve their desired result because the County and PXP together seemed to form twin barriers that were too daunting to surmount.
Standing back and studying a situation before even thinking of acting, comes naturally to Mr. Kuechle. It was in that spirit that he assessed the present stage of a very lengthy battle.
He was careful to isolate and characterize the terms on which his side was banking.
“Most of the people ‘fighting’ — if that is the word — PXP were not opposed to them drilling for oil. We just wanted them to make sure it was done safely, in a way that did not have significant impact on neighbors.”
At the end of the first round of petitioning by the organized residents in contesting g portions of PXP’s agenda, how close was your group to reaching its target?
“The negotiations were strange,” Mr. Kuechle, “and I guess all legislative negotiations are. When I, as a lawyer, work with someone, I am across the table from the person, as I am now. We work out a deal. I pretty much know what they want, I know what I want, and that is it.
“But here, our group only talked with PXP once or twice. It was actually a three- or four- or five-party negotiation, depending on how you looked at it.
“PXP would talk to somebody. Then the County would talk to us,” Mr. Kuechle said, imitating the sing-song nature of talks.
“We would be told, ‘You can’t do this, and you can’t do this.’ But we didn’t know if this was because PXP or someone else were saying it.
“I don’t really know how much of the disagreement was because PXP was pushy. I would assume that was the case, but that just was an assumption.
“We got a significant portion of what we were looking for, but not everything by any means.
“The major thing we did not get were commitments by PXP to start contracting the size of their oil field.”
(To be continued)
