A woman swelters in her darkened bedroom; another stares glumly at the utility bills piled on her desk. A motorist watches with resignation as the gas pump dial spins and the dollar amount climbs while a woman sits behind the wheel of her car and sobs at the hopelessness of it all.
The minute-long advertisement’s dystopian take on everyday life in the Golden State is underscored by a singer crooning country singer Cody Jinks’ mournful lyrics: “It’s been too long a time with no peace of mind, and I’m ready for the times to get better.”
The ad wasn’t released by a presidential campaign or a social justice organization. Instead, it was produced by the Western States Petroleum Association, the powerhouse oil industry trade and lobbying group. Its implicit message is that policies to fight climate change are hurting regular Californians.
The association ran the slick ad in television markets across the state during the Summer Olympics, said Kevin Slagle, the association’s vice president, strategic communications. Along with a website that features a three-question survey, it is part of a $5 million advertising and polling campaign — more than the petroleum association spent on general lobbying over the first two quarters of the year combined.
California’s overarching strategy to limit damage from climate change involves weaning its economy off oil and natural gas. Burning such fossil fuels emits carbon dioxide, the main driver of the climate crisis. The hotter atmosphere has killed people and caused billions of dollars in damage from severe flooding, drought, prolonged heat waves and wildfires — all hallmarks of human-caused climate change.
The oil lobby is trying to defeat bills that would encourage oil companies to clean up thousands of polluting idle wells and allow cities and counties to ban oil drilling.
There are serious questions as to whether California’s climate plans will place an uneven burden on state residents.
Electric vehicles are still too expensive for many lower-income residents, and California gasoline — which already has the highest per-gallon price in the nation — is taxed to pay for climate-friendly low-carbon fuels programs, nudging the price even higher. Drivers could soon be charged even more to make up for lost tax revenue at the pumps. Meanwhile, power bills are rising for lower-income residents to help pay for electrifying buildings, while natural gas users could see further rate spikes.
But a review of the Western States Petroleum Association’s lobbying actions shows that its legislative priorities in the current session focus less on increasing economic equity and more on defeating bills that would curtail the industry.
The oil lobby is trying to defeat bills that would encourage oil companies to clean up thousands of polluting idle wells (AB 1866) and allow cities and counties to ban oil drilling (AB 3233). It also lobbied against a bill to plug low-producing wells near homes (AB 2716): That bill has since been amended to apply only to the Inglewood Oil Field in Los Angeles.
Such actions could benefit working-class Californians, particularly in communities of color that tend to be closest to oil and gas production. And the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said that poverty and economic inequality exacerbate the effects of climate change. As the California legislative session winds down in August, all three bills are up for a final vote by lawmakers this week.
The measures are part of a “Make Polluters Pay” package championed by climate advocates. It originally included a bill that would have forced companies that emitted a billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions or more to pay for damage and preparations for future climate disasters — with 40% reserved for disadvantaged communities. Another would have forced oil companies to cover medical bills for people sickened by oil wells.
Neither bill advanced after the Western States Petroleum Association, the California Independent Petroleum Association and the California Chamber of Commerce lobbied against them.
Slagle said the Western States Petroleum Association opposed the “Make Polluters Pay” package because California has “already addressed” concerns about local pollution from oil wells, citing a landmark but much-delayed law passed in 2022 that increased the required distance between schools and neighborhoods and oil and gas operations.
“We’ll need these products for a while,” Slagle said, referring to oil and gas. The purpose of the petroleum association’s television ad campaign, he said, is to highlight how California’s climate policies — such as “arbitrary timelines” for electrifying vehicles, buildings and home appliances — worsen people’s financial struggles.
The petroleum association hired Probolsky Research to survey 900 people in May. Most respondents agreed they were concerned about how California’s climate goals would affect their daily lives. But the petroleum association didn’t release the methodology behind the survey; Slagle said the association’s ongoing polling is “not scientific.”
The California Air Resources Board adopted regulations to prohibit the sale of fossil-fuel-powered cars by 2035 and to require that 80% of household appliances such as stoves and water heaters be electric by that year if a house changes hands. The California Energy Commission, meanwhile, wants 90% of the state’s electricity production to come from zero-carbon sources by the same time, a goal set by legislation.
Taken together, such policies could unduly burden lower-income residents. In 2022, the California Air Resources Board reported that the combined effects of transitioning from fossil fuels will lead to a $4.1 billion decline in income for households making less than $100,000 a year by 2035. In contrast, households with higher incomes will see a gain of $3.5 billion.
Assemblymember Gregg Hart (D-Santa Barbara) introduced AB 1866 directing oil operators to plug wells that are no longer in operation but are likely still releasing methane, a potent greenhouse gas. He sees his legislation as a way to protect public health, especially in communities where residents lack the resources to prepare for and recover from sudden climate-driven disasters
Companies that do not comply could be charged thousands of dollars per well — a significant increase from the current fees under a state program that has allowed companies to keep wells unplugged for decades. It’s a necessary step since the number of idle wells in California has increased over the last seven years, Hart said.
The think tank Carbon Tracker Initiative estimates that the cost to taxpayers of plugging uncovered wells in California will be at least $6.9 billion.
“The idea that it’s just a business practice where we can idle a well and have [it] leak and not attend to it, that there may be a point in the future where oil prices are high enough and we want to re-open them — that isn’t a great environmental strategy for residents of California,” Hart told Capital & Main.
Slagle said many wells in the state “aren’t temporarily producing” but could come back to life when “market conditions improve.”
An economic forecast by the Carbon Tracker Initiative, a London-based think tank, shows that the costs of plugging oil and gas wells will eclipse potential profits of drilling California’s dwindling reserves — yet companies have been required only to offer up bonds worth a fraction of cleanup costs. The think tank estimates the cost to taxpayers of plugging uncovered wells in California to be at least $6.9 billion.
In addition to its TV ad, the Western States Petroleum Association is placing ads on Facebook taking aim at Hart’s bill and AB 3233, sponsored by Assemblymember Dawn Addis (D-San Luis Obispo), which would codify the right of cities and counties to prohibit oil and gas production. It would build on recent measures by local governments to prohibit drilling.
In 2021, Culver City voted to require oil companies to plug all of their remaining oil wells. The following year, the city and county of Los Angeles separately voted to phase out drilling over the next 20 years.
“The regular Californians that I meet really care deeply about their health,” Addis told Capital & Main. “They care deeply about their air quality and living in a world where we don’t have extreme weather events.”
In June, the California Geologic Energy Management Division released an analysis by a scientific advisory panel of more than 72 peer-reviewed studies affirming that people who live closer to gas and oil wells “experience a greater risk of decreased respiratory function and adverse perinatal outcomes” than those those who live farther away.
Slagle dismissed the analysis and that of similar studies. “Frankly, we believe a lot of science in them was designed to meet the political goals,” he said.
The Western States Petroleum Association ads contends that Hart’s and Addis’ bills will make gasoline more expensive and result in job losses. “Let us power our state for more affordable energy and progress we can all be proud of,” one of the ads says.
