Every January 31 is a big day in documenting the play-to-pay politics that dominate politics in California, supposedly the nation’s “green leader.” That’s the day when all lobbyists and employers of lobbyists must file their financial reports from the previous year with the State of California.
The results are now in — and spending on influencing government officials in California amounted to a total of $339 million. The eclipses the previous record of $314.7 million set in 2015, according to documents from the California Secretary of State’s Office.
Big Oil dominated three out of the four top spots of expenditures by all lobbying organizations.
Outspending all of their competition, Chevron placed first with $8.2 million and the Western States Petroleum Association, the trade association for the oil industry in the states of California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Arizona, spent $6.2 million. Tesoro Refining and Marketing Company finished fourth with $3.2 million. You can find the information on spending by employers of lobbyists here: cal-access.sos.ca.gov/...
That’s a total of $17.6 million dumped into lobbying by the three top oil industry lobbying organizations alone. That figure exceeds the $14,577,314 expended by all 16 oil lobby organizations in 2016.
Why was so much money spent by Big Oil?
Catherine Reheis-Boyd, WSPA’s President and the former Chair of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force to create questionable “marine protected areas” in Southern California, told the Los Angeles Times, “The spending by the petroleum association reflects ‘the enormous number of issues confronting the energy industry in California, and the potential impact those issues have on energy producers, refiners, consumers and businesses.”
Liza Tucker, Consumer Advocate for Consumer Watchdog, has a much different take on the reasons why Big Oil spent so much money last year. “Big Oil uses its money as hush money,” she said.
“Donations to political campaigns, causes, and ballot measures, in addition to lobbying dollars, ensure that state investigations of crooked business practices are never launched, that scientific recommendations on banning fracking and watering of crops with oil waste water are never applied, and that something as elementary as a decent buffer zone between urban residents and oil rigs is never mandated,” she stated.
Big Oil’s big coup last year was its writing of Jerry Brown’s “cap-and-trade” (pollution trading) bill, AB 398, “so full of loopholes that it remains cheaper for companies to pay chump change to pollute than invest real money into reducing carbon emissions,” noted Tucker.
“Big Oil also banned local air regulators from regulating carbon emissions at all, and limited state regulators to regulation only through cap-and-trade, which does not work to reduce carbon emissions,” she said.
The timing of the spending documents her contention. Chevron spent $6,153,952.23, a record for spending by Big Oil in one quarter, in the second quarter and another $1,119,056.62 in the third quarter when the legislation was making its way through the Legislature.
Likewise, the Western States Petroleum Association paid $2,528,750.60 in the second quarter and $2,290,408.89 in the third quarter to lobby California officials.
Tesoro paid $2,207,655.32 in the second quarter and 200,855.23 in the third quarter to lobby legislators and other state officials.
During the same period, Chevron, WSPA, Tesoro and other oil industry interests also used that same money to defeat Senate Bill 188, a bill authored by Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) to prohibit new pipelines or other infrastructure needed to support new federal oil and gas development.
Senator Jackson introduced SB 188 in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order last year opening the door to expanded offshore oil and gas drilling in federal waters off the California coast.
The Committee on Appropriations, chaired by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, D-San Diego, held the bill in suspension during their hearing on Friday, September 1, 2017.
Then in response to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s January 4 announcement to open federal waters along the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf Coasts to new federal offshore oil and gas drilling, Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) and Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) announced on January 5 that they are reintroducing legislation to protect the state from new federal offshore oil drilling.
Like the previous bill, Jackson and Muratsuchi’s legislation ensures that pipelines and other infrastructure cannot be built in California waters to support any new federal oil development.
In the Senate, Jackson will carry Senate Bill 834, also jointly authored by Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens). Muratsuchi will carry an identical companion measure, Assembly Bill 1775, in the State Assembly, also jointly authored by Assemblymember Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara).
The legislation prohibits the State Lands Commission from approving any new leases for pipelines, piers, wharves, or other infrastructure needed to support new federal oil and gas development in the three-mile area off the coast that is controlled by the state. SB 844 would also prohibit any lease renewal, extension or modification that would support the production, transportation or processing of new oil and gas, according to Jackson’s Office.
“The Trump Administration’s reckless decision to open these waters to further oil development represents a step backward into the outdated, dirty and destructive energy policies of the past,” said Jackson. “It’s more important than ever that we send a strong statement that California will not be open for drilling along our coast, which could devastate our multi-trillion dollar coastal economy, our coastal waters and marine life.”
This bill faces a uphill battle to pass through the Legislature and an even bigger challenge to be signed by Governor Jerry Brown before he leaves office, due to the expected gusher of lobbying money by Big Oil to defeat the legislation.
In the bizzare type of irony that defines politics in California, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the Western States Petroleum Association President, chaired the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force to create questionable “marine protected areas” in Southern California, the same so-called “Yosemites of the Sea” that would be devastated by any future oil spills from the expansion of offshore drilling in federal waters. She also served on the task forces to create these alleged “marine protected areas” on the Central Coast, North Central Coast and North Coast from 2004 to 2012.
At the same time, Governor Jerry Brown has already done in state waters what Trump wants to do in federal waters — expand offshore oil drilling. That’s right — Brown’s regulators have approved 238 new offshore oil wells in state waters under existing leases, an increase of 17 percent since 2012, according to analysis by the nonprofit FracTracker Alliance.
According to the Fracktracker Alliance:
"FracTracker Alliance reviewed the data published by DOGGR on permitted offshore wells. (DOGGR refers to the Division of Oil, Gas, & Geothermal Resources, which regulates drilling in CA). Using API identification numbers as a timeline, we actually find that it is likely that 238 wells have been drilled offshore since the start of 2012. The DOGGR database only lists “spud” (drilling) and completion dates for 71 – a mere 1.3% of the 5,435 total offshore wells. DOGGR reports that 1,366 offshore wells are currently active production wells. It must be noted that these numbers are only estimations, since operators have a 2-year window to drill wells after receiving a permit and API number.
Using these methods of deduction, we find that since the beginning of 2012 the majority of offshore wells have been drilled offshore of Los Angeles County in the Wilmington Oil Field (204 in total); followed by 25 offshore in the Huntington Beach field; 7 in the West Montalvo field offshore of Ventura County, and 1 in the Belmont field, also offshore of Ventura County. Additionally, the Center for Biological Diversity reports that at least 200 of the wells off California’s coast have been hydraulically fractured."
The FracTacker Alliance report is available here: https://www.fractracker.org/2017/02/more-offshore-drilling-ca/
The California Oil Lobby was the biggest spender in the 2015-16 legislative session, spending an amazing $36.1 million on lobbying over the two-year period. Big Oil spending last session amounted to $1.5 million per month — nearly $50,000 per day.
In addition, Jerry Brown has received over $9.8 million from oil companies, gas companies and utilities since he ran for his third term as governor, according to Consumer Watchdog. For more information on Governor Brown and his so-called "green" policies, see: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/sites/default/files/2017-09/how_green_is_brown.pdf
WSPA and Big Oil use their money and power in 5 ways: through (1) lobbying; (2) campaign spending; (3) creating Astroturf groups: 4) working in collaboration with media; and (5) getting appointed to positions on and influencing regulatory panels, as in the case of the MLPA Initiative.