Los Angeles, CA – Consumer Watchdog published a new Consumer Alert video today taking on a deceptive television ad by a group called Californians For Energy Independence, which records show is funded with more than $3 million from Chevron.
The ad falsely claims that California’s efforts to limit community oil drilling due to health risks will increase gasoline prices and doesn’t mention it is paid for by an oil company.
The Consumer Alert video points out that Chevron and oil producers are pumping so little oil from California’s dried-up wells that it couldn’t possibly impact gasoline prices.
“The ad claims that shutting down unproductive oil wells is endangering our energy supply,” said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog in the Consumer Alert video “That’s hog wash! What Chevron and the oil industry don’t want you to know is their oil wells have run out of oil in California. Chevron’s wells produce an average of 3 barrels of oil per day. That’s only enough to fuel 5 Ford F-150s.
“88% of oil wells in California are producing less than 4 barrels of oil per day,” Court continued. “Oil drillers are scraping the bottom of the barrel for oil in California. Why do they keep the wells running? Because the cost of plugging them is $100,000 each and they don’t want to pay the price.”
The video goes on the point out the true motivation behind the tv ad.
“California has set a limit on drilling too close to communities because oil drilling sites are toxic and known to cause cancer and birth defects,” Court said. “It’s the right thing to do for our community’s health, particularly because California oil wells produce so little oil that they cannot make a difference in the price of our gasoline.
“75% of the crude oil that feeds our gasoline refineries has long come from outside of California because we don’t have enough oil left,” Court concluded. “Don’t be fooled by Big Oil’s deceptive ads trying to blame California for its righteous efforts to protect communities from the poison of oil drilling.”
