Which Way, L.A.?

Urban Oil in Southern California

Host:

Warren Olney

Produced by:

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Oil is as much a part of Southern California history as sunshine and citrus groves. Downtown LA is pockmarked with oil wells capped before they ran dry. In Long Beach and Signal Hill, there were forests of derricks and they’re still pumping in Seal Beach, Santa Fe Springs and Beverly Hills. Tonight: is there an oil well coming near you?

Photo by David McNew/Getty Images, CULVER CITY, CA: oil rigs extract petroleum as the price of crude oil rises.

The price of crude oil today hit 123.34, an all time record, but applications to drill in California were already jumping. The LA Basin has been a source of oil since the turn of the last century. A lot of people will be surprised to learn how close to oil wells they’re living now — and what the rising price could mean in a lot of neighborhoods.

Guests:

William Deverell: Prof of History at USC, Director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West
Greg Brown: Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Breitburn Oil Corporation
Mark Salkin: Vice President, Culver Crest Neighborhood Association
Yvone Brathwaite Burke: Los Angeles County Supervisor

Underwriters

Which Way L.A.? is made possible in part by the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, which supports study and research into policy issues of the Los Angeles region.

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