Drilling for oil in Los Angeles

Interesting story -- as the price of Oil rises, it becomes economical to reopen wells that were closed earlier. A lot of these are in urbanized areas of California. From MS NBC:

Los Angeles is home to new rush of oil drilling
As energy prices surge, hidden rigs trap fertile fields under city

Remember how Jed Clampett and his family struck "black gold" and moved to Beverly Hills? Today the black gold is IN Beverly Hills.

Beverly Hills is one of the most fertile oil fields in Los Angeles, producing nearly a million barrels a year. Many wells are camouflaged or hidden inside buildings. One on the property of Beverly Hills High School is covered in quilt-like floral blankets.

Not far from here, in Wilmington, they churn out far more oil � in fact, the Department of Energy calls Wilmington the third largest oil field in the 48 contiguous states. Who knew?

Most of California's oil comes from the central part of the state (think Daniel Day Lewis in "There Will Be Blood"), but with oil prices so high, all over Los Angeles people are digging, or restarting, wells � even ones that only turn out 10 barrels a day. The state turns out 660,000 barrels a day, but that's down nearly half from the peak in 1985.

We have a lot of oil and there is a lot more under the ocean. Why we are not drilling for it beggars the imagination...