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Short abstract:

This paper examines the development of Long Beach's climate polices alongside the city's ongoing oil production to examine deferral as a mode of planning and governance in Southern California.

Long abstract:

In 2022, Long Beach, California approved the city’s first Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) to help “[prepare] for an uncertain climate future.” According to CAAP materials, “Climate change is happening now, so we need to act quickly.” The plan seeks to “reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, prepare the community for the impacts of climate change, improve the quality of life and enhance economic vitality in Long Beach.” During the seven-year-long process of developing the CAAP, local oil production emerged as an urgent matter of public concern—namely, the financial, environmental, and ethical stakes of city’s ownership and operation of the Wilmington Oil Field, the third largest field in the contiguous United States. Drawing upon the CAAP and its place within the city’s climate agenda, I argue that deferral is a mode of planning—not merely a failure to act. While the CAAP mentions reducing emissions from oil operations and lowering demand for fossil fuels, the phase-out of local extraction is aspirational. According to the CAAP, it will “eventually” happen but it is unclear when or how. Meanwhile, the city is challenging State laws that would expedite the phase-out. Drawing upon “fossil materialities” (Folkers 2021) and risk (Beck 1995, Luhman 1993), I explore how residents, city leaders, and the city’s oil bureaucracy navigate CAAP goals, climate risks, and the temporally-uncertain (but “inevitable”) phase-out of oil. I ask how deferrals, delays, and stalling are practices of governance and planning that may exceed mere hypocrisy or inaction.