[env-trinity] Big Oil capture of CA politics shatters the "greenest state" narrative - Oil lobby tops spending in 2015-16 session with $36.1 million

[Dan Bacher]

http://www.elkgrovenews.net/2017/02/california-oil-lobby-tops-spending-in.html


Photo: A water protector standing against Big Oil's  Dakota Access  
Pipeline in front of one of the project's investors, Wells Fargo, in  
Sacramento this January. Photo by Dan Bacher.

California oil lobby tops spending in 2015-16 session with $36.1 million

by Dan Bacher

In spite of California's reputation as a "green leader," Big Oil is  
the largest corporate lobby in the state and exerts enormous influence  
over the Governor's Office, Legislature and regulatory agencies.

As usual, the California Oil Lobby was the biggest spender in the  
2015-16 legislative session, spending an amazing $36.1 million as of  
December 31, 2016.

The spending amounts to $1.5 million per month — nearly $50,000 per  
day — over the last two years. The $36.1 million surpassed the $34  
million spent in the prior session, according to a report by the  
American Lung Association in California. “That’s enough money to buy  
103,000 goats,” reported Stop Fooling California, stopfoolingca.org.

The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) was the top overall  
oil industry spender during the 2015-16 session, spending $18.7  
million. As is normally the case, WSPA ranked #1 among all lobbying  
spenders this session.

Chevron, the second overall oil industry spender, spent $7 million in  
the 2015-16 session. It spent $3 million in 2016, sixth among all  
lobbyists in the current session.

In the seventh quarter alone, WSPA dumped $2.6 million into lobbying  
legislators and state officials while billionaire Tom Steyer's Next  
Generation Climate Action spent an unprecedented $7.3 million, almost  
3 times the oil industry group’s expenses.

The spending by Steyer’s group helped propel the passage of Senate  
Bill 32, legislation that reduces greenhouse gas level to 40 percent  
below 1990 levels by 2030, in spite of strong opposition by the oil  
industry.

Since the 2007-08 Session, the oil industry has spent $133 million in  
lobbying in California.

To read the complete report, go to: http://www.lung.org/local-content/california/documents/Oil-Industry-Lobbying-2016-update-4_1-31-17.pdf

WSPA: Sacramento's most powerful corporate lobbying group

Although the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) is the  
largest and most powerful corporate lobbying group in the West and  
California, its enormous influence appears to be one of our state’s  
best-kept secrets. It has spent more than other lobbying organization  
in Sacramento in recent years to exert control over the Governor’s  
Office, regulatory agencies and the State Legislature.

Big Oil, along with Big Ag, Big Pharma, Big Timber and other corporate  
interests, dominate politics in California, as well as in Washington,  
D.C., as evidenced by President's Donald Trump’s nomination of EXXON  
CEO Rex Tilleson as Secretary of State,  Scott Pruitt as EPA  
Administrator, and other oil and energy corporation shills to his  
cabinet. The appointment of oil industry officials and their allies to  
California regulatory panels has been standard practice in California  
for many years.

The Western States Petroleum Association is a “non-profit trade  
association” that represents companies that account for the bulk of  
petroleum exploration, production, refining, transportation and  
marketing in the five western states of California, Oregon,  
Washington, Arizona, and Nevada.

WSPA’s membership includes a who’s who oil, energy and pipeline  
corporations including Aera Energy LLC, Chevron, Californian Resources  
Corporation (formerly Occidental Petroleum), ConocoPhillips,  
ExxonMobil, Noble Energy, Inc., Phillips 66, Plains All American, Inc.  
Shell Oil Products US, Tesoro Refining and Marketing and Valero.

 From January 1, 2009 to November 8, 2016 alone, the oil industry  
spent $112,371,214 on lobbying expenses in California, according to a  
report, “The Chevron Way: Polluting California and Degrading  
Democracy.” The International Transport Workers Federation (ITF)  
Sydney Office produced the report, in collaboration with a coalition  
of conservation, consumer and environmental justice groups.

The Western States Petroleum Association led the oil industry lobbying  
expenses with $49,491,104 during this period, followed by Chevron with  
$24,035,901 and Phillips 66 with $4,821,144. For more information, go  
to: http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/12/02/wspa-the-wests-most-powerful-corporate-lobbying-group/

The five way Big Oil exerts its influence

WSPA and Big Oil use their money and power in 5 ways: through (1)  
lobbying; (2) campaign spending; (3) getting appointed to positions on  
and influencing regulatory panels; (4) creating Astroturf groups: and  
(5) working in collaboration with media.

Big Oil and other corporate advocates have dominated appointments to  
Commissions and regulatory panels in California under Governors Gray  
Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown, ranging from the  
Department of Conservation, to the California Public Utilities  
Commission, to the California Energy Commission, to the Marine Life  
Protection Act Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force.

In a classic case of the “fox guarding the hen house, Catherine Reheis- 
Boyd, President of the Western States Petroleum Association, chaired  
the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task  
Forces to create faux “marine protected areas” in Southern California  
from 2009 to 2012 at the same the oil industry was fracking South  
Coast ocean waters. Reheis-Boyd, appointed by Schwarzenegger, also  
served on the task forces for the Central Coast, North Central Coast,  
and North Coast from 2004 to 2012.

It gets worse. Reheis-Boyd’s husband, James D. Boyd, first appointed  
by Governor Davis, sat on on the California Energy Commission from  
2002 to 2012, including serving as Vice-Chair of the Commission from  
2/2007 to 1/2012.

In September 2016, the California Fair Political Practices Commission  
(FPPC) opened an investigation into the California Democratic Party in  
response to a report by a prominent consumer group, Consumer Watchdog,  
claiming that the party acted as a “laundry machine” to funnel  
donations from oil, energy and utility companies to Brown’s 2014  
election campaign. For more information, go to: http://redgreenandblue.org/2016/09/29/jerry-browns-campaign-launder-dirty-money-big-oil/

In the "Brown's Dirty Hands" report, Consumer Watchdog revealed that  
that twenty-six energy companies including the state’s three major  
investor-owned utilities, Occidental, Chevron, and NRG—all with  
business before the state—donated $9.8 million to Jerry Brown’s  
campaigns, causes, and initiatives, and to the California Democratic  
Party since he ran for Governor for his third term. Donations were  
often made within days or weeks of winning favors. The three major  
investor-owned utilities alone contributed nearly $6 million

"Occidental’s attorney, former Governor Gray Davis, successfully  
pressured Brown to fire two oil and gas regulators who wouldn’t grant  
oil waste injection permits without proof that aquifers would not be  
contaminated," according to the group. "Two months later, when Brown’s  
new interim oil and gas supervisor granted Occidental a permit without  
an environmental review, Occidental contributed $250,000 to Prop 30,  
Brown’s ballot measure to raise taxes, then another $100,000 two weeks  
later to his favored Oakland Military Institute. Seven months later,  
Occidental made a second $250,000 donation to Prop 30."

You can download "Brown's Dirty Hands" at: www.consumerwatchdog.org/dirtyhands

More recently on February 6, twelve public interest groups, led by  
Consumer Watchdog and Food & Water Watch, unveiled a comprehensive  
report card on the Brown Administration’s environmental record  
revealing that he falls short in six out of seven key areas, including  
fossil fuel generated electricity, oil drilling, and coastal  
protection. Read the report “How Green Is Jerry Brown?” at: www.consumerwatchdog.org/isbrowngreen

There is no doubt that Big Oil and other corporate interests dominate  
politics in California and Washington — and that we must relentlessly  
work to get Big Oil out of politics by supporting efforts like the  
Move to Amend, movetoamend.org, and the California Clean Money  
Campaign, www.caclean.org.
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