- 1 week ago
Oil made Los Angeles rich. Today aging and abandoned wells are raising fears over pollution, health risks and a costly cleanup. Also: Mallorca's hydrogen test.
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00:08Los Angeles is hiding something it's on these artificial islands and inside these fake buildings
00:15in the middle of the city we're standing right here one two three I can't even count how many
00:21oil wells they're all inside this building right here another building on the same street has over
00:2750 oil wells inside they're all over the place for years residents have been pushing to plug these
00:35old wells and stop drilling so how did this happen and can it be fixed and here's what else is
00:46coming
00:46up on made Mallorca puts green hydrogen to the test Estonia puts an AI chauffeur on the road and an
00:56Indian driving instructor takes on gender stereotypes you might know iconic Venice Beach from how it was
01:12shown in Baywatch but I'm here to hunt down some history these Venice canals sit on the edge of a
01:30former oil field one of many around LA I found some historical pictures from the UCLA library that
01:36shows this area how it was in the 1920s and 1930s this bridge here should be this exact bridge in
01:43the
01:43photo and here you can see that behind it was full of oil derricks a derrick is a tower that
01:52was used to
01:53drill and maintain oil wells the modern version is a rig every Derek in these photos is on top of
02:01a well
02:04oil was one of the reasons people moved to this area of California the city grew around it the industry
02:12grew massive and in the 1920s California was producing about a quarter of the world's oil
02:18eventually residents pushed to have the derricks removed on this map you can see all the active
02:25idle and plugged wells when oil is being pumped out of a well the well is active you can see
02:31these in
02:31green in California a well that is not produced oil for two years is considered idle these purple
02:37ones idle wells are still open and are sometimes reactivated the plugged ones are gray if plugged
02:43correctly the well can be safe if incorrectly plugged it can still quietly leak toxins into
02:49the air water and ground I decided to look up one that was under a playground let's see wow look
02:56at
02:56this so this well was plugged five different times April 7th 1959 this document is super long the first
03:05document in this file is from March 27th 1930 many old wells are right next to or under houses
03:13today there's wells everywhere around here we are standing on top of 10 15 oil wells right now there
03:24should be one right there exactly where I'm standing it's crazy but as we saw on those maps not all
03:36the oil
03:36wells in LA are plugged these active ones are on top of the Wilmington oil field the third largest in
03:42the
03:42United States and they're also in disguise both active and idle wells are a problem for residents
03:57Regina Martin and Tiana Wakeman speak to people around LA about health issues caused by oil Regina who grew up
04:06directly across from the Englewood oil field has breathing difficulties this is my old elementary
04:12school I've been in this community Windsor Hills View Park area my whole life the air would be so bad
04:19we
04:20could see the air that we were breathing it was that bad back then there was just always this layer
04:24of of
04:25gray air you know we couldn't even see downtown LA we'd have to wait until it rained for it to
04:32be a clear
04:33day like this I used to deal with the nosebleeds the headaches the upset stomach the red eyes I always
04:40felt that everybody lived near oil in oil field so it was just really really normalized for me
04:48when Regina gets close to the oil field now she often has coughing fits open wells release toxic
04:54chemicals like benzene and hydrogen sulfide studies have found people who live near them have reduced lung
05:00function both active and idle wells can also leak methane an explosive greenhouse gas 80 times as
05:07potent as co2 another area full of both active and idle oil wells is around Vista Hermosa where
05:15Rosalinda Morales and Brenda Valdivia grew up these ones are right next to a school to the right of us
05:22there's another school and these are within 300 feet or less of the soil field and then down the block
05:30is a
05:31uh a county um preschool yes there's a preschool down here we're just standing here and I can
05:39definitely smell uh smell what's going on when it's even worse this is mild today but you know this is
05:47what we've grown up with Rosalinda has breathing difficulties and Brenda has lupus an autoimmune disease
05:54which caused her to have multiple strokes they're both confident their health issues stem from oil
06:00extraction increased risk of cancer heart issues birth defects and lupus have all been linked to oil
06:06wells the difference between these neighborhoods and wider more affluent ones is stark there used to
06:14be an active oil well on the grounds of a high school in Beverly Hills one of the wealthiest areas
06:18of LA residents complained and a famous environmental activist even got on the case afterwards the wells
06:25were plugged there are protections that communities in South Los Angeles have been fighting for for
06:30decades that wider wealthy communities in West LA have already received so there is very clear
06:36environmental racism in that black and brown people saying I want clean air I want clean water I
06:41want clean soil for my kids to play in is not received in the same way as when white wealthy
06:45folks say
06:46the same thing Tiana and Regina's organization is advocating for the closure of the Inglewood oil
06:52fields and the phasing out of oil extraction entirely in LA recently a new law passed that says oil
07:00companies must submit plans to clean up their idle wells or pay a fine as of 2025 over 1,000
07:08California
07:08operators had done neither some of those violations are due to the operator no longer existing or being
07:14bankrupt those idle wells that have no one responsible for them are considered orphaned and how many of
07:20those are around LA we have thousands of them and a lot of them that we have in our in
07:28the LA County
07:29area the biggest challenge we have is accessibility Cal gem the state agency Pete Besquez works for
07:36regulates oil and gas in California the agency approves new drilling leases and permits operators to plug
07:43their own wells it also hands out violations and collects fines as part of its work it's evaluating
07:51all the known unplugged wells in the city the agency chooses wells to plug based on accessibility and
07:57the danger they pose they can't always plug them if an idle well is underneath a building for example it's
08:03essentially impossible to reach this well right out in the open is next on the agency's list this is
08:12the well whoa oh it's really smells yeah so you can see it is venting so let's step back a
08:17little bit
08:18they're gonna put a brand new well head so that's this and then this is what we're calling the blowout
08:24prevention equipment so this is additional safety measures in the event that you have say gas or water
08:30oil that comes to the surface that you can't control all this is expensive but how expensive varies widely
08:38depending on the wealth even if oil operators spent all their future profits on plugging wells
08:45California would still be short by nearly seven billion dollars in funding that's taxpayer money
08:53right that's going to plug these wells that's correct
09:02on this small street there are tons of uncapped wells
09:08and new construction has caused spills both of these provoked an oil spill and it went up that way
09:15and ran down about six city blocks the cars were all splattered it was like a river of of oil
09:23a river of oil residents also saw a spill in another neighborhood from a well that had already
09:26been capped twice calgem recommends that construction avoid wells but local authorities ultimately decided
09:33to build around it anyway there were about six to eight wells they kept one well and they put up
09:39a huge
09:40building on top of all the others they do have methane alarms they were going off constantly when people
09:46started occupying the building la is an example of how a city can begin to deal with its oily history
09:54but most of the money for plugging wells still comes from the state and federal governments
10:00residents bear the health burden of oil extraction and when the oil runs out they are left paying to
10:05clean up the mess
10:14oil pollutes but hydrogen can help clean things up unlike oil it can be made by splitting water
10:22when renewable energy powers that process it's called green hydrogen it's still rare but a project in
10:28spain is putting it to the test mallorca is known for nightlife tourism and beaches
10:38but away from the coast a different industry is taking shape next to the cement plant renewable hydrogen
10:45is being produced the first plans were drawn up in 2019 but the project only entered full operation
10:52last year the plant has a capacity of 2.5 megawatts using water and solar power it can produce up
11:02to 300 tons of hydrogen per year
11:06we want to build the first complete hydrogen ecosystem in southern europe on an island
11:13but this project isn't just about making hydrogen it's also about finding out where hydrogen can
11:19actually be useful and what benefits it offers one test case is palma's public bus network five hydrogen
11:27buses have been operating here for over a year but the buses have repeatedly been taken out of service
11:34due to other technical issues meanwhile the operator has ordered new buses from another manufacturer
11:41they're fully electric and cheaper
11:44a second test site is a 200-bed iberostar hotel its first hydrogen fuel cell recently went into operation
11:53the system produces both electricity and heat something hotels need year-round even in the summer
12:02it powers everything guests see in their rooms the lights air conditioning and so on it covers about 20
12:09percent of the hotel's energy needs
12:12and because it's a combined heat and power system it also produces heat
12:18we use it to preheat the water that comes out of the taps in the guest rooms
12:24the fuel cell provides around 70 percent of the hotel's heating demand a normal grid connection
12:31combined with a heat pump could do the same job but iberostar says the goal is to gain experience
12:37that could be useful at hotels in other parts of the world the conditions and infrastructure there
12:44are very different
12:48electricity isn't as cheap everywhere as it may be here in spain
12:54so once again it's a pilot project and it's likely to remain mallorca's only hydrogen-powered hotel
13:02the third example is the port of palma a hydrogen fuel cell is being installed here its main job will
13:09be supplying electricity to this ferry terminal and eventually to ferries while they're docked here
13:16to guarantee a megawatts from the grid around the clock we'd need a much larger grid connection than
13:22normal that's a costly and inefficient way to provide that capacity
13:27over the coming months the port authority will collect operating data and practical experience
13:36just like the other organizations that are involved
13:41and there's a fourth use for mallorca's green hydrogen right now this is where most of it is going
13:47the island's gas network in terms of fuel costs hydrogen is already on the same level as fossil fuels
13:57at the level of cost of the combustible
14:00meanwhile on mainland spain billions of euros are being invested in much larger hydrogen projects
14:07the lessons learned on mallorca are helping to shape them but the hydrogen there will mostly
14:12be used differently mainly in industry and refineries including the production of cleaner aviation fuels
14:20and one day mallorca's hydrogen could end up there as well
14:29more and more cars are leaving fossil fuels behind they're going fully electric and little by little
14:36they're learning to drive themselves waymo runs robo taxis in the u.s a german startup wants to bring ai
14:44to ordinary cars instead now it's testing them in estonia
14:55the car handles the driving while the passenger relaxes or works in the back seat
15:01it's been legal in estonia since may and artificial intelligence makes it possible
15:08i think it is our future because right now everything is autonomous i think it's cool i would totally
15:15test it that's gonna be a new thing i i think i think i'm too scared to use it i
15:21think i like to
15:22control when i'm driving the car german startup blick developed the technology the vehicles are to be
15:29delivered to estonia later this year blick takes a different approach to driverless taxi companies like
15:35waymo in the u.s we're not building a robot taxi it's more for personal use a kind of chauffeur
15:45without
15:45a chauffeur the same goes for business customers who use our vehicles for their own corporate fleets
15:53the control center with artificial intelligence is not inside the car but on top of it and can be
15:59integrated to almost any modern vehicle we have several sensors on the roof mainly cameras and light
16:07sensors we also recently added a computer in there that processes everything these components are used
16:14to process the signals which are then sent to the car to control it julian glab and torgen hausschild
16:20founded blick before that they worked at volkswagen now they're developing software and hardware for their
16:27own self-driving car it incorporates several ai systems that communicate and coordinate with one
16:34another if two ais can't agree what happens then what's going on around the car that makes you say
16:43we should probably slow down first make sure we're safe and then continue we can't do without humans
16:51just yet they monitor the drive from a distance employees take control when the car doesn't know
16:57what to do next this can happen at building sites or when traffic lights are out it's also a very
17:06important data point for our training whenever someone intervenes and overrides the system we can use it
17:12as an opportunity to include in our ai training and improve the system on this test track near talon the
17:23cars
17:23practiced handling dangerous situations this kind of collision no longer happens the reaction time has been
17:35improved that was definitely a major challenge and took quite a bit of development work to ensure that
17:42the algorithms were fast enough to optimize these systems so to speak in estonia eric safon of manages
17:49blicks business one of his potential customers is the founder of a cleaning company in talon
17:55it's cool that uh i can uh do my work uh during uh during the uh right vlad belopolsky plans
18:05to use
18:05self-driving cars to transport freelance cleaning staff to and from his clients homes the goal is to
18:12eliminate the use of conventional cars blick gives us an opportunity to scale without uh scaling our assets
18:22and also it helps us to bring equality for the cleaners uh cleaners don't need to have a car
18:31in addition to business customers it could also be of interest to families blick says
18:37for example children to the school wife to the uh to work so they can use like one car for
18:43for that reason and that car can always move to back to the garage for example but blick cars are
18:50not
18:50yet allowed to drive everywhere without a person in the vehicle the startup expects to receive
18:55approval for this in a few weeks and blick says talks are underway to put its vehicles on the road
19:01in
19:01germany too
19:10who are the safer drivers men or women the statistics may surprise you
19:16men are more likely to speed and drive drunk and are more likely to cause serious crashes
19:23in many countries women drive just as much as men
19:27but in india fewer women get behind the wheel
19:30we meet one instructor who's driving change
19:37so
19:42i
19:42i
19:43i
19:49i
19:50i
19:50i
19:50i
19:50i
19:52i
19:52i
19:52i
19:53i
19:54i
19:54i
19:59i
20:00i
20:00i
20:00i
20:03i
20:04i
20:04i
20:16i
20:17i
20:20i want to break that stereotype
20:22of these girls the car can't run the car
20:30my name is divya dixit so i am driving instructor from the last eight years
20:38I was working in Infosys and then I thought that I was born to do this and so on.
20:52My father was an instructor in driving school.
20:58Then my father taught me the car.
21:04My father kept me faithfully.
21:07Yes, I will do this.
21:09Then there was no such thing that I would have stopped.
21:14He would have thought that you should know everything.
21:19If every girl gets so much support from home,
21:24then India will be different.
21:31We live in a main dominating society.
21:37From childhood, I would like to teach them to go home.
21:41Don't play with her. Don't play with her.
21:42Don't play with her.
21:43There are many restrictions.
21:48How did we feel inferiority complex?
21:54Second gear.
21:56Full clutch.
21:57Look how good my gear box is.
21:59When I started, I had no trust in myself.
22:02If I could do this, then I would go to this level.
22:06But there was no trust in the people.
22:08That I could teach a girl.
22:09I could teach a girl.
22:10Now I'm going to set.
22:11Leg down it.
22:12Okay.
22:14Slightly.
22:15Okay.
22:16And now, I also do this.
22:18You shouldn't go to that car.
22:21You can't press it all.
22:28Still, this will lead to this level of a girl.
22:32You don't need to move it all.
22:36What do I have to teach?
22:43You should have a girl.
22:44You should be deciding the girl when you live.
22:45You should be watching a girl every week.
22:46If I go on a simple road,
22:48then they won't be afraid.
22:50Because being a girl.
22:55But if they take a girl,
22:59then their meaning is different.
23:01They will be afraid
23:03that they are going to be saying.
23:06Ladies are comfortable with ladies.
23:18It's a very comfortable feeling
23:19if a lady will teach ladies.
23:22Yes, straight.
23:28But that comfortability
23:30comes from the first day
23:32that I can understand a girl.
23:38Or that they will not be afraid
23:41that I will tell them
23:43that I feel scared
23:44and then they will judge me.
23:46No, I'm not there to judge.
23:49In India,
23:50or somewhere else,
23:52you should take a job for a driving instructor.
23:54Take a job.
23:55Take a job.
23:57It's not a job
23:59because you are learning
24:00someone else's independence.
24:07Then the smile on their face
24:09was on the 10th day.
24:10It's a 10-day course.
24:12So,
24:12it was very good for me.
24:18There will be more than 700 clients
24:21I have taught.
24:25What I've gained in eight years,
24:27I never get a job.
24:28and I never get a job.
24:39Indian traffic is very difficult.
24:42I mean,
24:43when clients go outside,
24:46in any country,
24:47there is no more population.
24:49There is no more cars there.
24:50than just there.
24:58I think沒有 that.
24:59Next you also have discipline.
25:00I will add your discipline.
25:01in our office,
25:02we don't have discipline.
25:04It's not like that.
25:04It is a matter of discipline.
25:07So do anyiciones to our kids?
25:14and we not have ranked.
25:15Anybody can drive, anybody can drive.
25:17I mean, ladies.
25:20I mean, like now, school vans have a lot of ladies.
25:24I mean, cab drivers too.
25:28I mean, now, auto drivers too.
25:30You have seen the cab.
25:36They gave me a tagline, driving queen.
25:39That's how I feel.
25:40And I feel good about myself.
25:49That's all for MADE today.
25:51We uncovered hidden oil wells in Los Angeles,
25:54a green hydrogen project on Mallorca,
25:57an AI chauffeur in Estonia,
25:59and a trailblazing driving instructor in India.
26:03Take care.
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