As a leading researcher on deep regulatory capture by Big Oil in California, I have spent since 2009 exposing how the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) and the oil companies exercise their influence and power through a very sophisticated public relations machine in California and the U.S. that includes their latest campaigns to use Astroturf groups to spread disinformation and sponsor dinners and awards ceremonies for journalists.
Also today, Consumer Watchdog president Jamie Court participated on a roundtable panel at the Energy Commission today dealing with methodologies to establish the penalty.
In the “Consumer Alert” video, Consumer Watchdog exposes the disinformation in a deceptive mailer by a refiner-funded Astroturf (front) group called Californians for Affordable and Reliable Energy or CARE, one of the many Astroturf groups that WSPA has funded over the years.
The front group was presented as being “activated” by the Western States Petroleum Association or WSPA to “contribute” to its advocacy goals in a 2014 internal presentation first made public by Businessweek (see page 5), according to Court.
The mailer blames Sacramento politicians for California’s high gasoline prices and falsely claims, “Sacramento politicians are adding $1.12 for every gallon of gasoline.”
In fact, Court said, “Californians’ added taxes and environmental fees add only 70 cents per gallon.”
The video breaks down the costs and shows how California oil refiner profits of more than $1 per gallon are to blame for the high cost of California gasoline, noted Court.
The oil and gas industry spent over $34.2 million in the 2021-22 Legislative Session lobbying against SB 1137, legislation to mandate 3200 foot buffer zones around oil and gas wells, and other bills they were opposed to: cal-access.sos.ca.gov/…
For the oil companies, this was just pocket change when you consider that combined profits of California oil refiners, including PBF Energy, Chevron, Marathon Petroleum, Valero, and Phillips 66, were $75.4 billion in 2022.
The two biggest spenders were WSPA and Chevron. WSPA spent $11.7 million in the 2021-22 session, while Chevron spent a total of $8.6 million lobbying California officials.
This figure already surpasses the total oil and gas industry lobbying expenses for 2023 — $18 million. The results for the fourth quarter and the total for 2023 won’t become available until January 31, 2024.
Lobbying disclosures from Quarter 3, representing lobbying between July 1 - September 30, 2023, reveal that oil companies and trade associations spent more than $7.2 million on influence-related activities in an all out effort to kill California climate bills and hold Big Oil accountable, according to data compiled by the Climate Center.
The top three lobbying spenders — Chevron, the Western States Petroleum Association, and Aera Energy – far outspent all others in the oil and gas industry. – “Their filings depict opposition to a number of key pieces of climate and energy related legislation, including SBX 1-2 implementation, AB 1167, SB 252, SB 253, SB 261, as well as numerous other bills,” the Center reported.
The San Ramon-based oil giant Chevron topped third quarter fossil fuel industry lobbying expenditures, doling out a total of $3,866,296 in the third quarter. Of that, $71,192.89 of their influence spending went to WSPA and another $2.18 million to WSPA front group Californians for Energy Independence.
WSPA placed second in fossil fuel industry lobbying expenditures with $1,381,995 spent lobbying the Legislature and other state officials in 2023's third quarter.
Big Oil lobbyist chaired task force to create faux ‘marine protected areas’
In one of the clearest examples of deep regulatory capture in recent California history, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the President of the Western States Petroleum Association, CHAIRED the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force to create so-called “marine protected areas” in Southern California at the same time that she lobbying for new offshore drilling in the same region from 2009 to 2013. She also served on the MLPA Initiative task forces for the Central Coast, North Central Coast and North Coast from 2004 to 2013: www.wspa.org/…
At the same time that she chaired this panel, Reheis-Boyd’s husband, James Boyd, served as Vice Chair of the California Energy Commission (CEC). In 2009, Consumer Watchdog exposed the apparent conflict of interest presented by James Boyd by sitting on the CEC as his wife oversaw lobbying operations for the big oil companies and refiners in California: consumerwatchdog.org/...
The “marine protected areas” created under the leadership of Reheis-Boyd and others on the task forces failed to protect the ocean from offshore drilling, fracking, pollution, seismic testing and other human impacts on the ocean than recreational and commercial fishing.
While proponents of the neoliberal MLPA Initiative, funded by the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, claimed that the new “marine protected areas” would help to restore abalone, rockfish and other fish populations, the very opposite has happened.
California is now in its worst-ever fishery crisis, due to abysmal water and fishery management by the same California Natural Resources Agency and California Department of Fish and Wildlife that championed the so-called “marine protected areas at the very same time they were promoting the environmentally destructive Delta Tunnel Project and overseeing the extinction of Delta smelt and winter-run and spring-run Chinook salmon populations.
Salmon fishing is now closed in the ocean waters of California and most of Oregon and in all California rivers, due to the collapse of fall-run Chinook populations on the Sacramento and Klamath rivers. The fall-run Chinook salmon population crash on the Sacramento River was spurred by the diversion and export of Sacramento River water to agribusiness and Southern California water agencies during the drought and other factors.
Fishing for rockfish and other groundfish is banned off the California coast for the rest of the year in less than 300 foot of water. The once vibrant red abalone fishery on the North Coast is now closed, due to a population crash. The purple sea urchin invasion, spurred by warming ocean water due to climate change, devastated the once extensive coastal kelp forests on the North Coast.
And for the fifth year in a row, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife found no Delta smelt in its Fall Midwater Trawl Survey in 2022. The Delta smelt, once the most abundant fish in the estuary, is virtually extinct in the wild.
The same state government that promoted the fake “marine protected areas” as a “solution” to ecosystem and fishery declines has helped to engineer the worst ecological crisis in the state’s history while fast-tracking projects that will makethe disaster even worse — the Delta Tunnel, Sites Reservoir and the voluntary agreements.
Western States Petroleum Association sponsors dinners and awards ceremonies for journalists
You will rarely see deep reporting on Big Oil regulatory capture in California, like I do here, by journalists in the MSM and faux “alternative” media, due to their capture by the oil industry and other corporate interests.
In one of the clearest examples of the collaboration between Big Oil and the media, the Western States Petroleum Association sponsored a “media dinner” on Tuesday, February 28 this year in Sacramento as part of #BizFedSactoDays.
The flyer for the event stated, “Journalists who play an outsize role in shaping narratives about state politics and holding lawmakers accountable will join business leaders to pull back the curtain on how they select and tell stories about California policies, policy and power.”
Featured speakers at the program included Coleen Nelson of the Sacramento Bee, Laurel Rosenhall of the Los Angeles Times, Kaitlyn Schallhorn of the Orange County Register and Dan Walters of Cal Matters.
In a tweet, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, President of the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) and former Chair of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force to create “marine protected areas” in Southern California, gushed:
“One of our favorite times of year is #BizFedSactoDays- when @BizFed helps amplify the presence and power of business in California. And we're honored to host the Media Dinner and featured media speakers! @DanCALmatters @LaurelRosenhall@ColleenMNelson @K_Schallhorn”
Then on March 16, the Sacramento Press Club announced in a tweet that WSPA was the new “Lede Sponsor” of the Sacramento Press Club's Journalism Awards Reception that was held on March 29: “Thank you to our new Lede Sponsor @officialWSPA! WSPA is dedicated to guaranteeing that every American has access to reliable energy options through socially, economically and environmentally responsible policies and regulations. Learn more more at http://wspa.org”
In response to this tweet, investigative journalist Aaron Cantu tweeted back on March 20, “As the recipient of @SacPressClub ’s environmental award last year, it’s concerning to see fossil fuel industry talking points passed off uncritically here. WSPA becoming lede sponsor happened in the context of a global PR turn as the climate crisis worsens.”
Unfortunately, Cantu is the only journalist other than me with the integrity to contest the sponsorship of the Sacramento Press Club’s Journalism Awards Reception by WSPA.
Even more unfortunately, there is no doubt that WSPA and Big Oil have for years worked closely with media outlets.
In 2015, I wrote this article about how LA Times and the California Resources Corporation (formerly Occidental Petroleum) teamed up on a propaganda website: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/10/30/1442947/-LA-Times-and-Big-Oil-team-up-on-propaganda-website. Fortunately, the Times is no longer managing and running that website.
More recently, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, WSPA President, was on the "short list" of nominees for the LA Times "Inspirational Women Awards” held on October 18, 2022.
Can you guess who was one of the sponsors of the LA Times awards? Yes, you guessed right — WSPA was a sponsor.
According to a tweet from @OfficialWSPA, "Today @latimes acknowledged a woman who is already well known in our industry as a trailblazer and inspiration to tens of thousands of women. Congrats to our fearless leader @WSPAPrez for being recognized as a shortlisted nominee for the Inspirational Women Awards."
In addition, four LA Times reporters last year received the “Courage in Journalism” award from the Sacramento Press Club in 2022. Yes, the Western States Petroleum Association was one of the sponsors of these awards last year also.
In addition to sponsoring journalism events in California, the Western States Petroleum Association has expanded its campaign to influence journalists nationally. WSPA and the controversial waste management firm Veolia North America sponsored events at this year’s Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) conference in Boise, Idaho, according to a report from DeSmog: scq.io/...
“The agenda for the conference, which is being hosted in Boise, Idaho, shows that the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) and the waste management company Veolia North America are sponsoring two of the “beat dinners” hosted on Friday, April 21 — the third day of the event,” the article by Sam Bright reported.
Fortunately, WSPA and Veolia’s sponsorships of the SEJ conference spurred condemnation by at least one group, Fossil Free Media.
“There’s no excuse for these sorts of conflicts of interest,” Jamie Henn of the campaign and communications group Fossil Free Media told Bright. “By letting the fossil fuel industry sponsor events, groups like SEJ lend credibility to bad actors” that are attempting to “influence coverage and maintain their social license by pretending to be well-meaning supporters of the free press.”
When so called journalism organizations are tainted by the toxic stench of Big Oil money — and very few “environmental” and “climate” organizations have any problem with this — you know we are doomed, absolutely doomed.