As Los Angeles and San Diego County recover from unprecedented climate change-induced fire storms, California Secretary of State data reveals that the oil and gas industry spent a record $69,026,319 lobbying California officials in the 2023-2024 Legislative Session to fend off polluter accountability, anti-price gouging measures and climate legislation.
The fossil fuel industry spent $7,605,708 in Quarter 5, $8,524,427.34 in Quarter 6, $18,037,877 in Quarter 7 and $7,205,917 in Quarter 8. That comes to a total of $41,371,000 in 2024 alone, a new record for spending in one year, according to the Cal Access raw data: cal-access.sos.ca.gov/…
If only the first three quarters of 2024 were considered, it would still be a record year for oil industry spending.
“The $15.3 million spent in the first two quarters — and the record spending of $16.9 million in the third quarter — means that Big Oil has already surpassed its $26.2 million record set in 2017 for one year with $32.2 million spent in the first three quarters of 2024,” according to an analysis in November 2024 by the Last Chance Alliance.
The numbers for the Last Chance Alliance Nov. 5 report came from taking the original oil and gas industry list compiled by CalAccess and then removing any companies placed on the list that are part of the biomass or carbon removal industries.
In 2023, the second-highest industry spending year on record after 2017, Big Oil spent around $25.4 million.
As usual, the Western States Petroleum Association, the trade organization for the oil and gas industry, and Chevron spent the bulk of oil lobbying money in the first three quarters.
The Western States Petroleum Association spent $10,121,571, an amazing amount of money for just one quarter. Chevron spent $4,712,555 during the quarter, while Aera Energy spent $302,093,
I will update this report with more details as the data becomes available from the Last Chance Alliance.
The record lobbying spending took place as CalGEM, the state’s oil and gas regulator, continued to issue new and reworked oil drilling permits.
Since Governor Newson came to office in January 2019, a total of 16,719 total oil and gas drilling permits of all types have been approved by state regulators.
In the third quarter of 2024, zero California permits to drill conventional oil and gas wells were approved, but 33 out of 34 permits were issued to drill wells using extreme enhanced oil recovery techniques (EOR) in the notorious Cymric Oilfield in Kern County, Consumer Watchdog and FracTracker Alliance reported.
The 34 approvals by CalGEM, the state’s oil and gas regulator, represent a rise of 580% over the third quarter of 2023. Sentinel Peak Resources California received the 33 approvals.
Those approvals were among the 930 oil drilling permits approved in the first nine months of the year that include 69 new well permits and 861 oil well rework permits.
WSPA and Big Oil wield their power in 8 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; (6) creating alliances with labor unions; (7) contributing to non profit organizations; and (8) sponsoring awards ceremonies, including those for legislators and journalists.
WSPA and Big Oil have for years worked closely with media outlets and more recently have sponsored awards for legislators and journalists. For example, the Western States Petroleum Association was one of the “lede sponsors” of the Sacramento Press Club’s Annual Journalism Awards for the past two years.
