Oil and gas corporations pumped record amounts of money into fighting California’s environmental justice and climate policies in 2024, according to an analysis by the Last Chance Alliance (LCA).
“Lobbying and influence spending disclosures show that Big Oil spent $6.6 million in the fourth quarter attempting to shape statewide policy measures,” the LCA revealed. “That brings the annual price tag for last year to $38 million, shattering the annual state lobbying record for the industry by 31%, which stood at $26.2 million in 2017.
Spending by two groups alone, Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), the largest and most powerful corporate lobbying group in California, and Chevron, shatter the previous record, coming in at $31.6 million in 2024. WSPA and Chevron accounted for 83% of the industry’s expenditure.
The top five 2024 Big Oil influence spenders can be seen below.
| Western States Petroleum Association |
$17.4 million |
| Chevron |
$14.2 million |
| CRC / Aera Energy |
$2.1 million |
| Marathon Petroleum |
$1.5 million |
| Phillips 66 |
$876,563 |
CRC/Aera Energy took third place in the Big Oil lobbying spending spree, spending $2.1 million in 2024. Marathon Petroleum placed fourth, spending $1.5 million, while Phillips 66 placed fifth, spending $876,563.
Big Oil crushed its two-year legislative session record as well, spending $65.8 million during the 2023-2024 legislative session. This far exceeds the $44.1 million spent during the 2017-2018 session, the LCA said.
“During the fourth quarter, Chevron disclosed influence spending contributions of nearly $426,000 alone to the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), as well as another over $231,000 to the front group Californians for Energy Independence, and over $77,000 to a Washington, DC-based PR firm named DDC Public Affairs that is notorious for its creation of industry front groups and deception campaigns,” the LCA stated.
“WSPA, for its part, paid over $19,500 to the notorious Chevron-tied law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher currently defending a handful of its Big Oil member companies in the landmark climate deception lawsuit filed against them by Attorney General Rob Bonta in 2023. It also forked over $33,000 to the legal administrator of its front groups, the Bay Area law firm Nielsen Merksamer,” the group wrote.
Direct lobbying remained a cornerstone of Big Oil’s strategy in Sacramento. “They concentrated heavily in 2024 on blocking the Make Polluters Pay legislative package, targeting bills like AB 1866 (idle wells reform), AB 2716 (reforms for low-producing wells), and AB 3233 (reaffirming localities’ authority to regulate or ban oil drilling)—all of which were ultimately signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom,” the LCA revealed.
The Polluters Pay Climate Cost Recovery Act, AB 1497, also earned Big Oil’s lobbying attention and did not pass in 2024. Climate justice advocates, responsive to the historic wildfires, called for similar legislation to be introduced in 2025 building off the momentum amassed after New York passed climate superfund legislation at the end of 2024.
“Big Oil is spending gobs of money lobbying to kill climate legislation when they should be paying for the widespread damage from L.A’s deadly fires,” said Christina Scaringe, California climate policy director at the Center for BiologicalDiversity. “California should be using every tool available to hold these polluters accountable. That includes passing a climate superfund bill to take billions in climate costs off Californians and put it on polluters where it belongs.”
Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act of 2025 Introduced
The devastating January firestorm in Los Angeles County damaged or destroyed over 7,800 structures in the Palisades Fire, almost 10,500 structures in the Eaton Fire, and claimed the lives of 29 Californians.
In the wake of yet another climate catastrophe, Senator Caroline Menjivar (D- San Fernando Valley) and Assemblymember Dawn Addis (D- Morro Bay) have introduced SB 684 and AB 1243 - the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act of 2025.
“At the core of these disasters are the Californians whose lives and property have been destroyed. Many of whom were already experiencing financial uncertainty due to the rising costs of basic needs; food, housing, utilities, and transportation to work,” said Senator Menjivar. “We must be relentless and creative in pursuing all avenues to redirect the financial burden away from the consumer as we mitigate the consequences of human-made disasters. Profits for polluters skyrocket year over year, and California’s taxpayers simultaneously pinch their pennies for household expenses while also solely footing the bill for catastrophic wildfires and other related disasters. The Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act is a commonsense way to tap into a small fraction of polluters’ profits, and collect their share of the financial burden.”
A study recently released by World Weather Attribution found that climate change—driven by the extraction and burning of fossil fuels—made the extreme fire weather conditions behind Los Angeles’ recent deadly wildfires 35% more likely. “The escalating cost of climate emergencies is leaving Californians across the state struggling, while oil and gas production drives billions of dollars in revenue to fossil fuel companies responsible for the climate conditions fueling these disasters,” the LCA stated.
With the new administration’s commitment to a “Drill, Baby, Drill” agenda, advocates say it is “more important than ever” to expose industry’s influence over California politics and policymakers.
“At a time when Angelenos are still reeling from massive, destructive wildfires – fires that we know were made worse by fossil fuel-driven climate change – the greed shown by Big Oil companies is astounding,” said Nicole Ghio, California Director at Food & Water Watch. “These companies knew that climate change was real decades ago, but instead chose to spend ridiculous amounts of money on a massive disinformation campaign so they could keep profiting from their pollution. Polluters like Big Oil, not Californians, must pay for the costs of climate change, and we need a robust Superfund to make sure that happens.”
Over the past decade, the oil industry has spent tens of millions creating and funding astroturf organizations to mislead the public on climate, derail public health and environmental policies, and protect profits at taxpayers’ expense. “Just one day after the devastating fires erupted in Los Angeles, WSPA launched a series of social media ads falsely claiming that the state’s environmental policies drive up the cost of energy in the state,” the Alliance wrote.
Oil industry benefits from tax subsidies and loopholes
Meanwhile, California’s oil industry benefits from hundreds of millions of dollars in tax subsidies and loopholes, including a lucrative tax avoidance scheme called Water’s Edge that was the subject of a recent report published by The Climate Center, the LCA noted.
“If oil corporations already have millions to spend on lobbying and PR campaigns, they don’t need hundreds of millions of dollars per year in taxpayer subsidies,” said Barry Vesser, Chief Operating Officer at The Climate Center. “While oil and gas executives subvert our democracy to protect their profits, working Californians are paying the price. It’s time for Governor Newsom to eliminate all state subsidies and tax breaks for Big Oil and reinvest in clean, affordable, and reliable energy for all.”
As climate justice advocates gear up for a new legislative fight in California for 2025, they said they are “doubling down on efforts to combat industry misinformation and build a powerful movement to hold the industry accountable for the climate damage they are fueling.”
“Californians are tired of Big Oil’s manipulation of state politics,” said Collin Rees, United States Campaign Manager at Oil Change International. “Increasingly, they want politicians who refuse dirty money and put the health and safety of California communities before fossil fuel profits.”
“How do we know? Following demands from their constituents, over 650 California politicians from all levels of government have signed onto the No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge, vowing to reject contributions from fossil fuel CEOs, lobbyists, and industry groups. Pledge signers won their Assembly, State Senate, and U.S. House races in California in November at significantly higher rates than non-signers,” noted Rees.
“When wealthy corporations spend millions, more in 2024 than ever before to influence state lawmakers, it will never be for the benefit of you and me,” said Zachary Norris, California Climate Director at Greenpeace USA. “Oil and gas companies in California are buying off politicians and hijacking our democracy in order to protect their profits by killing critical climate and environmental justice advancements.”
Kobi Naseck, Coalition Director of VISIÓN (Voices in Solidarity Against Oil in Neighborhoods), concurred with the assessments of Rees and Norris.
“Are we okay with Big Oil spending almost $40 Million to pressure lawmakers to cave to their demands – the most they’ve ever spent in a single year? This is the question facing Californians right now,” said Naseck. “Are we okay with Big Oil throwing that much money around on fancy lunches and to kill life-saving public health legislation when they should be spending it on cleaning up the mess they’ve made? Thousands of Angelenos are still trying to rebuild their lives after some of the most destructive wildfires we’ve ever seen, fires made worse by the climate crisis. Big Oil clearly has plenty of money to spend. That money should go to the people in a Superfund.”
Quinn Eide, Executive Director of Fossil Free California, pointed out that the state’s politicians and public pensions being in bed with Big Oil has real life consequences for Californians.
“Public opinion and regulatory policies are bought and sold by WSPA, Chevron, and others; meanwhile, toxic air and water continue to cause devastating health effects on communities on the frontlines of oil industry operations, and the risk of additional catastrophic wildfires, droughts, and floods increase. We have to stop funding Big Oil, and these corporations have to pay up for the damage they have already caused our communities,” concluded Eide.
Western States Petroleum Association sponsors dinners, award ceremonies for journalists
As Big Oil spent record lobbying money in the 2023-24 Legislative session, the Western States Petroleum Association sponsored dinners and awards ceremonies for journalists and media corporations to further advance their already enormous influence in California.
This relationship has increasing relevance in light of the climate change-induced wildfires that have raged through Los Angeles and San Diego counties this year as the Trump administration, under the grip of Big Oil and Big Ag, spreads disinformation about the fires and California water: chico.newsreview.com/...
In 2023 and 2024, the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), the largest and most powerful corporate lobbying group in California and the West, sponsored several dinners and awards receptions for journalists. This article will review those efforts by the oil industry to curry favor with journalists, as well as examples of collaboration between Big Media and Big Oil in previous years.
In one of the clearest examples of the collaboration between Big Oil and the media, the Western States Petroleum Association, the largest and most powerful oil industry lobbying group in California and the West, sponsored a “media dinner” on February 28, 2023, 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 Colleen 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”
The Western States Petroleum Association sponsored the media dinner again this year on June 3, 2024 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the WSPA headquarters in Sacramento.
On X, formerly Twitter, @BizFed proudly proclaimed: “Journalists and business advocates. We have more in common than you might think. It all boils down to people and their stories. What a privilege to host guest journalists @conanNBCLA @davelesher @Elex_Michaelson, and @EytanWallace at our BizFed Media Dinner in Sacramento.”
This year we can expect BizFedSactoDays to sponsor yet another dinner with “guest journalists” who have no problem having the Western States Petroleum Association sponsor an event they are featured at.
WSPA, the largest and most powerful corporate lobbying group in Sacramento, describes itself as “non-profit trade association that represents companies that account for the bulk of petroleum exploration, production, refining, transportation and marketing in Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.”
WSPA teams up with Sacramento Press Club on awards reception
The Sacramento Press Club has also teamed up with WSPA. On March 16, 2023, the Sacramento Press Club announced in a tweet that WSPA was the new “Lede Sponsor” of the 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.
In 2024 the Western States Petroleum Association was again one of the “lede sponsors” of the Sacramento Press Club’s Annual Journalism Awards Reception on April 11. Sammy Roth of the Los Angeles Times won the “impact in journalism” award, while Doni Chamberlin of A News Cafe won the “courage in journalism” award. You can see the list of award winners here: sacpressclub.org/…
And this time, no other journalist than this one had the courage and integrity to criticize the sponsorship of a journalism awards reception by WSPA at a time of increasing collaboration between the media and the oil and gas industry.
The date and location for this year’s awards reception hasn’t been announced yet, but you can expect the Press Club to feature WSPA as a “lead sponsor” once again: sacpressclub.org/…
And you can expect journalists and media influencers to “proudly” participate in an awards reception in Sacramento sponsored by WSPA and an array of PR firms.
WSPA sponsors beat dinner for Society of Environmental Journalists
In addition to sponsoring journalism events in California, WSPA has expanded its campaign to influence journalists nationally. WSPA and the controversial waste management firm Veolia North America sponsored events at 2023’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 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.”
For years, I have covered the capture of media outlets, journalists, politicians, regulators and environmental NGOs by the fossil fuel industry in California and the West.
‘Readers for Sale: The Media's Role in Climate Delay’
In 2023, it was great to see somebody else beside this journalist step up to the plate on a national and global level to expose the increasing collaboration between Big Oil and media corporations.
Drilled and DeSmog, in collaboration with The Intercept and The Nation, released a startling report: Readers for Sale: The Media's Role in Climate Delay.
"As the business model for media has faltered, the fossil fuel industry has increasingly weaponized weaknesses to its benefit," the report begins.
The report, coming out as the COP28 climate summit continued to generate controversy, goes into detail on how much money some of the biggest media companies in the world are taking in from fossil fuel, and where exactly the money is being spent.
“Reuters is one of at least seven major news outlets that creates and publishes misleading promotional content for fossil fuel companies, according to a report released today. Known as advertorials or native advertising, the sponsored material is created to look like a publication’s authentic editorial work, lending a veneer of journalistic credibility to the fossil fuel industry’s key climate talking points,” wrote Amy Westervelt and Matthew Green in the Intercept on Dec. 5.
“In collaboration with The Intercept and The Nation, Drilled and DeSmog analyzed hundreds of advertorials and events, as well as ad data from MediaRadar. Our analysis focused on the three years spanning October 2020 to October 2023, when the public ramped up calls for media, public relations, and advertising companies to cut their commercial ties with fossil fuel clients amid growing awareness that the industry’s deceptive messaging was slowing climate action,” the authors wrote.
“All of the companies reviewed — Bloomberg, The Economist, The Financial Times, The New York Times, Politico, Reuters, and The Washington Post — top lists of most-trusted news outlets in both the U.S. and Europe. Each has an internal brand studio that creates advertising content for fossil fuel majors that range from podcasts to newsletters, videos, and advertorials, and some allow fossil fuel companies to sponsor their events. Reuters goes a step further, with marketing staff creating custom industry conferences explicitly designed to remove the ‘pain points’ holding back faster production of oil and gas.”
Read the Intercept article here: https://theintercept.com/2023/12/05/fossil-fuel-industry-media-company-advertising/
View the full report here: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24183641-drilleddesmog_mediagreenwashingreport
You will rarely see deep reporting on Big Oil regulatory capture by journalists in the MSM and “alternative” media. The report by Drilled and DeSmog, in collaboration with the Intercept and The Nation, was very welcome news in a time of increasing collaboration between media and Big Oil.
LA Times and California Resources Association Team Up
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 the Los Angeles 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.
In yet another example of media collaboration with Big Oil, 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."
WSPA and the oil companies 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) sponsoring awards ceremonies and dinners, including those for legislators and journalists; (7) contributing to non profit organizations; and (8) creating alliances with labor unions, mainly construction trades.
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 — we are in a really dark time in human history.
