By Dan Bacher, THE DAILY KOS
Despite California’s “green” image, Big Oil continues to spend millions of dollars in lobbying California officials to thwart climate bills and other environmental legislation opposed by the oil industry, as well as leaning on state regulators to issue more oil drilling permits.
The oil and gas industry spent a total of $16,942,877 lobbying California officials in the third quarter of 2024. That’s a record for one quarter by the industry, as far as I know.
The $15.3 million spent in the first two quarters — and the record spending of $16.9 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.
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.
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, according to the raw data on the California Secretary of State’s website: cal-access.sos.ca.gov/…
I will update this report with more details as the data becomes available.
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.
In the second quarter of 2024, The oil industry spent around $8.3 million on lobbying in published disclosures. Aera Energy and California Resources Corporation, Chevron, and the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) spent a combined $6.8 million alone.
Chevron topped the oil industry spending with $4,070,286 pumped into lobbying, followed by the Western States Petroleum Association with $1,782,919 and Aera Energy with $784,852.
The remaining top ten oil industry spenders were: Philipps 66 with $221,107; Marathon Petroleum with $202,215; California Resources Corporation with $190,398; Synergy Oil and Gas with $140,250; California Independent Petroleum Association with $118,065; Exxon Mobil with $110,605 and BP with $84,025.
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: sacpressclub.org/…
