On Earth Day 2019, fifteen activists from the Extinction Rebellion gathered and 12th and L Streets and then marched at 10:30 a.m. to the offices of the powerful Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) at 14th & L Streets in downtown Sacramento.
For over an hour, they protested against the oil industry’s grip on California and U.S. politics both in front and back of the building, including blocking the back door of the offices.
The action was held as part of an international series of actions in at least 80 cities and 33 countries. https://www.facebook.com/ExtinctionRebellion/
The activists who marched on WSPA released the following statement:
“The biggest emergency that we have in the world at this time is our climate. Sacramento is 30' above sea level. We will have climate refugees in Sacramento when the polar ice is gone by 2023. That is what the latest science is saying, not 2050, as many people believe.
“The foothills are burning and you Sacramento, the Capitol of California, will be underwater. We need California to be a leader in the climate action, we need to get off fossil fuels by 2025 and carbon zero, by 2025. In fact, 2020 is a better target date for legislation to start, so we have a clear 2020 vision of what we as citizens, can expect , in the very near future.
”It will be hard, it will be uncomfortable, but we need to have conversations with our friends, family, and strangers on the street. Heartfelt real conversations. We are the reluctant activists who would much rather be sipping wine and sailing around the world or simply watching a baseball game, but if not us then who, and if not now, then when?”
Imani Davis of Sacramento, who held a sign stating, “No More Oil” in front of the office, said, “I believe in legislation and I believe in the Green New Deal, but to push this to actually happen, we have to put our bodies on the line.”
The Extinction Rebellion has three demands: "#1 Tell the Truth, #2 Act Now, and #3 Beyond Politics."
Then at 2:30 p.m. they went to the State Capitol, Room 447, to a hearing at the Natural Resources Committee today urging the California Legislature to move forward legislation, AB 345, to establish a 2500 foot health and safety zone (setback) between oil drilling and sensitive sites like homes, schools, and playgrounds. Buoyed by a big turnout of environmental justice advocates, the bill passed through the committee.
AB 345 (Health and Safety Zones), passed out of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee by a 7-3-1, with Committee members Al Muratsuchi, Laura Friedman, Monique Limon, Ed Chau, Kevin McCarty, Cristina Garcia, MarkStone casting the “aye” votes. Assembly member Susan Eggman abstained and Davon Mathis, Heath Flora, and Melissa Melendez voted “no.”
Last week, a half dozen major Sacramento area media newsrooms were targeted by Extinction Rebellion activists, who demanded that the mass media tell the truth about the climate crisis.
The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA, the most powerful corporate lobbying group in California and the West, has topped lobbying spending in California most years. In 2018 the group was the second-highest spender for the year, only trumped by the nearly $10 million spent by PG&E lobbying state officials.
WSPA spent $7,874, 807 to influence California government officials in 2018. The powerful association spent all of its money in the 2017-2018 session on general lobbying, with nothing spent on the CPUC. Of the four quarters, WSPA spent its most money lobbying, $2,649,018, in the eighth quarter, from October 1 to December 31, 2018.
The Western States Petroleum Association is led by President Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the former chair of the controversial Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force to create so-called “marine protected areas” in Southern California.
The total lobbying figures for WSPA in 2018 are below: cal-access.sos.ca.gov/…
SESSION |
QUARTER |
GENERAL LOBBYING |
P.U.C. LOBBYING |
2017-2018 |
8th |
$2,649,018.34 |
$0.00 |
2017-2018 |
7th |
$1,514,828.95 |
$0.00 |
2017-2018 |
6th |
$1,686,014.82 |
$0.00 |
2017-2018 |
5th |
$2,024,947.91 |
$0.00 |
For the entire 2017-2018 Session, WSPA spent a total of $15,768,069.
WSPA represents a who’s who of oil companies, including oil giants BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon, Shell, Valero and many others. The companies that WSPA represents account for the bulk of petroleum exploration, production, refining, transportation and marketing in Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, according to the WSPA website, www.wspa.org.
Chevron and its subsidiaries took third place in the “lobbying competition” in 2018, spending around $4 million on lobbying.
Over the past decade, WSPA and Big Oil have topped the list of spenders on lobbying the Legislature in California. During the 2015-2016 Legislative Session, the oil industry spent a historic $36.1 million to lobby lawmakers and officials in California.
WSPA was the top overall oil industry spender during the 2015-16 session, spending $18.7 million. Chevron, the second overall oil industry spender, spent $7 million in the 2015-16 session.
In 2017, Big Oil also dominated three out of the four top spots of expenditures by all lobbying organizations. Chevron placed first with $8.2 million and the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) placed second with $6.2 million. The Tesoro Refining and Marketing Company finished fourth with $3.2 million.
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.
In the first six months of 2017, the oil industry spent more on lobbying in California, $16,360,618, than was spent by the industry in all of 2016, $16.0 million.
WSPA and Big Oil wield their power in 6 major ways: through (1) lobbying; (2) campaign spending; (3) serving on and putting shills on regulatory panels; (4) creating Astroturf groups: (5) working in collaboration with media; and (6) contributing to non profit organizations.
Because of this money and the power that Big Oil wields in California, the Jerry Brown administration, in stark contrast with its “green” facade, issued over 21,000 new oil and gas drilling permits in California. That include more than 200 permits for offshore wells in state waters -- wells within 3 miles of the California coast.
In addition, the state of California under Brown — and now under Gavin Newson - controls four times as many offshore oil wells in state waters as Trump’s federal government controls in California. You can view the map showing the location of wells here: http://brownvtrumpoilmap.org.
This money and power also allowed allowed the oil industry to write the cap-and-trade bill, AB 398, that Governor Brown signed in September 2017, as well as to twice defeat a bill to protect a South Coast marine protected area from offshore drilling.
Ironically, the same WSPA president that led the charge to defeat a bill to protect the Vandenberg State Marine Reserve from offshore oil drilling CHAIRED the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force to create “marine protected areas” on the South Coast.
For more information about WSPA and Big Oil, go to: www.dailykos.com/...