Bacher, Dan
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see WSPA expose</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><a href="https://redgreenandblue.org/2022/03/18/worst-drought-1200-years-california-rubicon/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://redgreenandblue.org/<b>2022/03</b>/18/worst-drought-1200-years-california-rubicon/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://redgreenandblue.org/author/danbacher/" title="Posts by Dan Bacher" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dan Bacher</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Dan Bacher is an environmental journalist in Sacramento who focuses on California's water issues, a healthy environment for the salmon fishery of the Northwest, and the attempts by big agriculture and big oil to hog all the water.</span></font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" style="" size="4" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" style="" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Big Oil’s big money influence: They’re dumping $5 million into a single local fight in California</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Oil giant Aera Energy, a corporation owned jointly by Exxon and Shell Oil, has spent $5 million to fight Measures A and B, two ballot initiatives that would eliminate loopholes that allow oil companies to drill in Ventura County with no modern environmental review, recently released campaign documents reveal. By Dan Bacher That could break […]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dan Bacher<b> March 23rd</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://redgreenandblue.org/2022/03/23/big-oils-big-money-influence-theyre-dumping-5-million-single-local-fight-calilfornia/">https://redgreenandblue.org/2022/03/23/big-oils-big-money-influence-theyre-dumping-5-million-single-local-fight-calilfornia/</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Big Oil’s big money influence: They’re dumping $5 million into a single local fight in Calilfornia</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Published on March 23rd, 2022</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">TAGGED: BALLOT MEASURES, BIG OIL, CALIFORNIA</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b style="">Oil giant Aera Energy, a corporation owned jointly by Exxon and Shell Oil, has spent $5 million to fight Measures A and B, </b>two ballot initiatives that would eliminate loopholes that allow oil companies to drill in Ventura County with no modern environmental review, recently released campaign documents revea</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">l.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Big Oil's nefarious influence: They're dumping $5 million into a single local fight in Calilfornia By Dan Bacher</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>That could break the record for fossil fuel interest contributions to a referendum campaign in the county, according to a statement from Food & Water Watch:</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">”In 2020, Aera Energy was among the fossil fuel interests who spent upwards of $1 million three days after the Ventura County Board of Supervisors voted to eliminate the antiquated permit loopholes for new drilling projects,” the group stated. “The money bought enough signature gatherers to put the issue back on the ballot in the form of Measures A and B. Voting ‘yes’ on Measures A and B will reinstate the protections against antiquated drill permits initially voted on by the Board of Supervisors.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>“This is just the beginning of a tsunami of money and misinformation Big Oil is going to flood Ventura County with</b>,” said Tomás Morales Rebecchi, Food & Water Watch Central Coast Organizing Manager and a VC-SAFE campaign leader. “But Aera Energy leaders are mistaken if they believe millions in misinformation will fool Ventura County voters into giving up protections for their water, farms and communities.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“We will not allow fossil fuel interest groups with massive warchests to dictate our future and subvert our democracy. More than 1,000 oil wells sit within half a mile of Ventura County homes, and 60 percent of those homes are located in communities of color. This is a grassroots fight for environmental justice, public health and a livable future. Aera Energy’s fight is for their bottom line and corporate greed,” he stated.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The VC-SAFE (Ventura County Save Agriculture and Freshwater for Everyone) coalition comprises environmental, social justice and public health advocates working to pass Measures A and B to protect Ventura’s aquifers, communities and farms from oil drilling using antiquated permits, according to Morales Rebecchi.</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">-----</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CALIFORNIA WATER WARS</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Small Chinook salmon are schooling in California’s Auburn Ravine after successful spawn</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The fall of 2021 was a good season for adult Chinook salmon swimming up Auburn Ravine to spawn in the foothills east of downtown Lincoln, California, according to an update from Friends of Auburn Ravine. By Dan Bacher ”Over 200 large fall-run chinook salmon, some over 43 inches long, made the trip. The thousands of eggs […]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dan Bacher March 21st</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Worst Drought in 1,200 Years: California at the Rubicon</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">News Release from the California Water Impact Network: A paper that was recently published in the journal Nature Climate Change had a convoluted title: Rapid Intensification of the Emerging Southwestern North American Megadrought in 2020-2021. But what the paper detailed was explicit, easily understood – and terrifying. Using tree-ring data, researchers determined that the decades between 2000-2021 were the driest […]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dan Bacher March 18th</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CALIFORNIA WATER WARS</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The ocean abundance of Sacramento salmon tops last year, but adult river spawners remain low</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Low numbers of adult fall-run Chinook salmon returned to spawn in the Sacramento River in 2021, but the ocean forecast abundance for fall Chinooks is better than last year, according to federal and state scientists at the annual Salmon Information meeting held virtually on March 2. By Dan Bacher The 2022 ocean abundance projection for Sacramento River fall […]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dan Bacher March 8th</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CALIFORNIA WATER WARS</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Another devastating year for salmon and Delta fish forecasted (unless California officials take action)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As California continues to reel from a record drought, the US Bureau of Reclamation announced its initial 2022 water supply allocations for Central Valley Project contractors this week, pointing to another tough year for salmon and other fish populations in the Central Valley rivers and Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. By Dan Bacher A recent scientific […]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dan Bacher February 27th</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CALIFORNIA WATER WARS</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Klamath River dam removal process enters home stretch</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) released its draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on the proposed removal of the lower four Klamath River dams yesterday, the biggest dam removal project in U.S. history. By Dan Bacher Here is the press statement from the Karuk Tribe, Yurok Tribe, American Rivers, Trout Unlimited, Institute for Fisheries Resources, California […]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dan Bacher February 26th</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CALIFORNIA WATER WARS</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">New CA water legislation would devastate the Sacramento Delta</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">State Senators Melissa Hurtado and Dave Cortese are not exactly friends of the Delta. Their audacious new bill SB1219 is a complete assault on the Delta and all the work that Restore the Delta has championed over the years. By Dan Bacher This bill would give the State Water Resources Control Board’s authority to the Department […]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dan Bacher February 25th</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">FOSSIL FUELS</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">California State Senator Lena Gonzalez introduces fossil fuel divestment bill</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On February 17, Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) introduced a bill in the California Legislature that would mandate that California’s public pension funds stop investing in fossil fuel companies. SB1173, the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act, would require these state pension funds to make no new investments in fossil fuel companies and to divest existing fossil fuel investments […]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dan Bacher <b>February 21st</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 class="post-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgba(216, 216, 216, 0.2);">C<a href="https://redgreenandblue.org/2022/02/21/california-state-senator-lena-gonzalez-introduces-fossil-fuel-divestment-bill/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">alifornia State Senator Lena Gonzalez introduces fossil fuel divestment bill</a></h2><div class="at-above-post-arch-page addthis_tool" data-url="https://redgreenandblue.org/2022/02/21/california-state-senator-lena-gonzalez-introduces-fossil-fuel-divestment-bill/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgba(216, 216, 216, 0.2);" /><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; background-color: rgba(216, 216, 216, 0.2);">On February 17, Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) introduced a bill in the California Legislature that would mandate that California’s public pension funds stop investing in fossil fuel companies. SB1173, the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act, would require these state pension funds to make no new investments in fossil fuel companies and to divest existing fossil fuel investments […]</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; background-color: rgba(216, 216, 216, 0.2);">
</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">The California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest non-federal pension funds in the country, have over $9 billion invested in fossil fuel companies and related energy sector industries. CalSTRS has about $469 billion in assets, while CalPERS has $327 billion in assets.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">A recent report estimates that out of these funds CalPERS invests $5.5 billion in fossil fuel companies and CalSTRS invests $3.4 billion.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">For decades, predominately black and brown, low income communities have suffered from the harmful health effects of living in communities surrounded by oil and gas wells in California, a state that styles itself as a “green” and “progressive” leader but still does not have setbacks from oil and gas wells like other states like Colorado, Pennsylvania, North Dakota and even Texas do.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">For Nalleli Cobo of Los Angeles, the need for divestment from fossil fuel companies is very personal. When the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) met publicly with advocates of fossil fuel divestment at a <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P6qUO7w7u6gNfg1dLhuTsNc_o0CoCyjR/view?usp=sharing" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">virtual Sustainability Symposium</a> on<a href="https://fossilfreeca.org/sustainability-symposium/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;"> </a>February 9, Cobo shared her experience growing up near an oil well.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">“My health declined,” she testified. “I started getting body spasms so severe I couldn’t move. My mom would have to carry me from one place to another. At the age of 19, I was diagnosed with stage 2 cancer.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">“It’s important that teachers’ money doesn’t go to killing kids, it doesn’t go to damaging their organs or their health; it goes to protecting them and guaranteeing a beautiful life for them,” Cobo said.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">Likewise, Lizbeth Ibarra, a 17 year old climate activist who grew up near the Chevron refinery in Richmond, asked CalSTRS, “How much more does my community have to suffer, how much does my future have to be in question for you to decide that your moral responsibility is to pull support from those causing the suffering?”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">“Do teachers know that you’re investing their money in supporting destructive projects, from <a href="https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php/cw/los-angeles/21549-investing-in-destruction-california-teachers-pension-money-should-not-be-funding-line-3" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">Line 3</a> to the <a href="https://www.stopeacop.net/why-stop-eacop" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">East Africa crude oil pipeline</a>?” she stated.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">Accompanying the introduction of the bill, Gonzalez held a press conference Thursday that featured Miriam Eide, Coordinating Director, Fossil Free California; Carlos Davidson, Professor Emeritus, San Francisco State University and California Faculty Association member; Raven Fonseca Jensen, Member, Youth vs Apocalypse;</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">Senator Gonzalez, who as a mother of three and a resident of a district where residents suffer from exposure to toxics, knows first hand about the impacts of fossil fuel corporations on frontline communities.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">“Investing billions in the fossil fuel companies that are polluting our environment while at the same time trying to meet ambitious emissions reduction goals is contradictory and incongruous,” she said. “SB 1173 will ensure we remain true to our values and honor our commitment as a State to protecting the environment and the health and future of all Californians, including historically disadvantaged communities of color that are disproportionately impacted by the hazardous pollutants released into our communities by these companies.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">In response to my question about how divestment bill proponents will overcome the grip that the oil industry lobby has on the Legislature, she said the Legislature passed a similar bill in 2015 requiring CalPERS and CalSTRS to divest from coal companies.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">She also noted that an estimated 1,500 institutions with over $39 trillion in assets have already committed to divestment, including the University of California, the California State University, the State and City of New York, the State of Maine, the Vatican, and the province of Quebec.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">“I think the political appetite is out there now for this bill,” she said.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">Miriam Eide, Coordinating Director at Fossil Free California, said after eight years of CalSTRS and CalPERS ignoring the calls of students, teachers, and state workers to divest their pensions, her group is “grateful to Senator Gonzalez for leading the way in today’s legislative push for pension divestment.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">“Divestment is the right thing to do for climate change and is a smart financial move for our pensions,” echoed Carlos Davidson, CFA Peace & Justice Committee member and retired San Francisco State professor. “We have to stop pretending that fossil fuel companies are good corporate citizens. Their own scientists knew their product was causing climate change, but the companies kept it secret.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">”CFA wields a powerful credential in California, and we can best serve our principles of social and racial justice by taking a lead in climate justice for future generations of students, families and communities,” said Davidson, who helped organize the campaign for CFA to vote for CALPERS divestment last year.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">Another CFA member, Anne Luna-Gordinier, a sociology professor at Sacramento State who is of Cherokee and Choctaw ancestry, emphasized SB 1173 is urgently needed now, since “we are facing an existential crisis.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">She cited a recent scientific journal article (<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01290-z" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01290-z</a>) revealing that the drought in the Western states that started in 2000 represents the driest two decades in 1200 years, in addition to citing a NOAA report stating that coastal areas in the U.S. will see frequent flooding due to climate change.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">Finally, Anaya Sayal, a member of Youth Vs Apocalypse, also urged support for SB 1173.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">“Divestment is essential to the wellbeing of the large community of people of color being affected by fossil fuel investments, along with the entirety of the planet, which is being greatly harmed,” stated Sayal. “Fossil fuels are heavily contributing to the climate crisis, placing future generations in a horrible situation, even though the current generation could make great strides towards solving this issue so the burden does not completely fall on them.”</p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 22.4px; line-height: 24px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Background: Big Oil’s Grip on Sacramento </em></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), the largest and most powerful corporate lobbying group in Sacramento, has spent over $17.5 million alone lobbying the California Legislature and other state officials over the past three years.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">In 2021, WSPA spent $4,397,004 lobbying legislators and state officials to serve Big Oil’s agenda, according to data filed with California Secretary of State’s Office.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">The association spent $957,137 on lobbying in the fourth quarter of 2021. The money went to an array of in-house lobbyists and outside lobbying firms, topped by Ramball Environ in Philadelphia that received $116,981 in the fourth quarter and $366,864 in 2021.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">WSPA spent a total of $8.8 million in 2019 and $4,267,181 in 2020 on lobbying California legislators and officials as thousands of oil and gas drilling permits were approved by CalGEM, the state’s oil and gas regulatory agency: <a href="https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php/cw/los-angeles/21259-big-oil-spent-10-million-lobbying-california-officials-in-2020" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">www.citywatchla.com/…</a></p><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">In 2020, even a weak bill recommending health and safety setbacks around oil and gas failed to get through the oil industry-friendly California Legislature.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">Then in 2021, another stronger bill, SB 467, failed to pass throughout the legislature because of heavy oil industry lobbying of legislators, including those who had received big campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry. The bill would have banned fracking by 2023 eliminating fracking and instituting mandatory health and safety zones between oil and gas extraction and places where Californians live, work, and study.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">The inordinate influence by Big Oil on California politicians and regulators is most dramatically evidenced by the approval of thousands of new and reworked onshore oil and gas well permits by CalGEM, the state’s oil and gas regulatory agency, since Newsom took office in January 2019.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">On the same day the LA City Council voted to ban oil and gas wells in city limits, Consumer Watchdog and FracTracker Alliance reported at <a href="https://consumerwatchdog.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=16fdf633d6cc08468a8275737&id=30ffd0651a&e=012a06ab40" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">www.NewsomWellWatch.org</a> that Governor Newsom has approved 10,212 oil drilling permits since he assumed office in 2019. The total is nearly identical to the number of permits Governor Jerry Brown approved in his first three years.</p></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">Lobbying is just one of the seven methods that Big Oil uses in California to exercise inordinate influence over California regulators. WSPA and Big Oil wield their power in 7 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; and (7) contributing to non profit organizations.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">In one glaring example of oil and gas industry officials serving on regulatory panels, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, President of the Western States Petroleum Association, chaired the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force to create “marine protected areas” in Southern California from 2009 to 2012, as well as serving on the task forces to create “marine protected areas” on the Central Coast, North Central Coast and North Coast from 2004 to 2012.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em;">----</p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">DRILL BABY DRILL</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Not just Big Oil – Utilities are price-gauging, too</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">California investor-owned gas utilities including SoCalGas – the company responsible for the disastrous 2015 Alison Canyon Gas Storage Facility Blowout — were charging customers 53.9 percent more even as their companies saw revenue rise, according to a new analysis by environmental watchdog Food & Water Watch. By Dan Bacher SoCalGas, PG&E, and San Diego Gas […]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dan Bacher February 16th</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CALIFORNIA WATER WARS</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">California Action Alert: Tell Valley Water we don’t want dams in our parks</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">An action deadline is swiftly approaching, with comments on Valley Water’s draft Pacheco Reservoir Environmental Impact Report (EIR) due this Tuesday, February 15th at 5pm. By Dan Bacher We’ve mentioned this dam proposal before, but as a refresher: It’s Illegal: The proposed Pacheco Dam would put a reservoir inside Henry Coe State Park. This is prohibited under the California […]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dan Bacher February 12th</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">DRILL BABY DRILL</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">California State Senator Dave Min introduces bill to ban offshore drilling in California waters</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In a major challenge to the powerful oil industry in California, Senator Dave Min (D-Irvine) has introduced a bill to ban offshore drilling in state ocean waters, including oil production under current lease agreements. Senate Bill 953 would end all drilling in California state waters by the end of 2023. There are currently 11 leases and three […]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dan Bacher February 11th</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">----</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CALIFORNIA WATER WARS</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Big Ag interests tried to push “More Water Now” ballot initiative in CA. They failed.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On February 1, the corporate agribusiness and water agency proponents of the controversial “More Water Now” initiative announced that they were pulling the initiative from qualifying for the November 2022 ballot due to lack of funds and signatures. By Dan Bacher ”Today the More Water Now campaign announces an end to its efforts to qualify The […]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dan Bacher February 5th</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">DRILL BABY DRILL</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Why we can’t have nice things: Western States Petroleum Association spent $17.5 million lobbying CA officials over past 3 years</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), the largest and most powerful corporate lobbying group in Sacramento, has spent over $17.5 million lobbying the California Legislature and other state officials over the past three years. By Dan Bacher In 2021, WSPA spent $4,397,004 lobbying legislators and state officials to serve Big Oil’s agenda, according to data filed with […]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dan Bacher February 4th</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CALIFORNIA WATER WARS</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Environmental and tribal coalition files comments on Sites Reservoir after disastrous year for fish</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A coalition of environmental and tribal groups, including Friends of the River, California Native Plant Society, AquAlliance and Save California Salmon, today submitted comments to the Sites Project Authority regarding the controversial Sites Reservoir project, currently proposed for construction in Colusa County on the west side of the Sacramento Valley. By Dan Bacher The comments came in […]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Share this:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dan Bacher February 1st</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">DRILL BABY DRILL</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">New analysis reveals fossil fuel industry’s job claims are ‘wildly inaccurate’ in California, US</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), the most powerful corporate lobbying group in Sacramento, claims that there are 368,000 jobs in the oil industry in California. “The oil and gas industry is a vital part of California’s energy mix,” WSPA stated on their website. “As a leading economic force and major employer, we proudly contribute to […]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://redgreenandblue.org/2022/01/31/new-analysis-reveals-fossil-fuel-industrys-job-claims-wildly-inaccurate-california-us/">https://redgreenandblue.org/2022/01/31/new-analysis-reveals-fossil-fuel-industrys-job-claims-wildly-inaccurate-california-us/</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div>no lnx</div><div>Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), the most powerful corporate lobbying group in Sacramento, claims that there are 368,000 jobs in the oil industry in California. “The oil and gas industry is a vital part of California’s energy mix,” WSPA stated on their website. “As a leading economic force and major employer, we proudly contribute to communities across the state, providing more than 368,000 jobs in CA.” www.wspa.org/… But a just-released Food & Water Watch analysis counts just 22,000 jobs in the industry in California, based on Department of Labor statistics — and says this total has dropped 40 percent over the past decade.</div><div>
</div><div>By Dan Bacher</div><div>
</div><div>“Overall, oIl and gas production account for barely one-tenth of 1 percent of all employment in California,” the analysis revealed.</div><div>
</div><div>WSPA spent a total of $4,267,181 on lobbying California legislators and officials in 2020 and $8.8 million in 2019 as thousands of oil and gas drilling permits were approved by CalGEM, the state’s oil and gas regulatory agency: www.citywatchla.com/…</div><div>
</div><div>The research from the environmental organization Food & Water Watch debunks fossil fuel industry claims about job creation throughout the U.S. showing that “overall employment has suffered even as production has increased.”</div><div>
</div><div>“When Gov. Gavin Newsom announced modest plans to phase out permitting for new oil production in California, industry advocates freaked out,” according to the analysis. “The Western States Petroleum Association claimed that the oil industry supports close to 368,000 jobs in the state. That is surprising since, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 22,000 Californians were involved in oil production in 2020, down 40 percent from the industry’s peak in 2012. In the Golden State, oil and gas production accounts for barely one-tenth of 1 percent of all employment.”</div><div>
</div><div>The analysis notes that one of the most misleading aspects of industry jobs analysis is the conflation of direct jobs with indirect and induced jobs.</div><div>
</div><div>“Direct jobs are positions directly within a given industry. Indirect jobs are those within the supply chain that supports that industry, while induced jobs are positions supported by wages from both direct and indirect jobs. Indirect and induced jobs account for nearly 75 percent of the top-line numbers that some oil and gas companies are referencing. Misattributing these jobs to the oil and gas industry itself distorts the size and scope of the industry’s payroll,” the analysis noted.</div><div>
</div><div>As the state continues to suffer from devastating fires and drought and salmon, Delta smelt and other fish species continue on the path to extinction, both the state and federal governments continue to approve oil and gas well permits in California.</div><div>
</div><div>Today Consumer Watchdog and FracTracker Alliance reported that Governor Newsom has approved 10,212 oil drilling permits since he assumed office in 2019. The total is nearly identical to the number of permits Governor Jerry Brown approved in his first three years.</div><div>
</div><div>According to the latest analysis by FracTracker Alliance of permits approved through December 31, 2021, and posted by Consumer Watchdog at www.Newsomwellwatch.org, the number of permit approvals fell from 2020.</div><div>
</div><div>“Nevertheless, Newsom’s number is nipping on the heels of Brown’s 10,268 permits dispensed in his first three years in office. Brown ultimately approved 31,545 wells during his eight years in office,” the groups reported.</div><div>
</div><div>More recently, federal data analyzed by the Center for Biological Diversity shows the Biden administration approved 3,557 permits for oil and gas drilling on public lands in its first year, far outpacing the Trump administration’s first-year total of 2,658.</div><div>
</div><div>In California, the Biden administration approved 187 permits — more than twice the 71 drilling permits Trump approved in that state in his first year.</div><div>
</div><div>Fossil fuel jobs decrease as oil and gas production increases</div><div>The inflated estimates by WSPA are part of a nation wide campaign by the oil and gas industry to overestimate the number of jobs created by the industry.</div><div>
</div><div>For many years, the oil and gas trade association American Petroleum Institute (API) has released “wildly inflated estimates of direct and indirect jobs created by the fracking industry,” ranging from 2.5 million to 11 million, according to the Food and Water Watch analysis.</div><div>
</div><div>“But the new analysis – which is based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics – shows that the industry employs far fewer workers than it claims: About 541,000 nationwide, or less than 0.4 percent of all jobs,” the group stated.</div><div>
</div><div>The group said fossil fuel jobs losses were “particularly striking” in 2020, when oil and gas employment fell by 22 percent.</div><div>
</div><div>“Oil and gas production, however, fell by just 3 percent,” the analysis continued. “While the jobs decline is attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, this is part of a larger trend: Total oil and gas employment has fallen 33 percent since 2014. Over the same period, production has risen 32 percent.”</div><div>
</div><div>Food & Water Watch Senior Researcher Oakley Shelton-Thomas said, “The oil and gas industry uses promises of employment to gain political leverage, which has impeded the necessary transition to clean, renewable energy. This research shows that the industry’s jobs claims are not only wildly inaccurate, but that they are able to bring more oil and gas out of the ground with fewer workers. When the jobs disappear – especially in bust years like 2020 – workers and frontline communities bear the pain.”</div><div>
</div><div>The group also said the gap between industry jobs misinformation and reality was “particularly wide” in two other oil and gas producing states, Pennsylvania and New Mexico.</div><div>
</div><div>• In Pennsylvania, API claimed that a fracking ban would cost over 500,000 jobs. In reality, just under 25,000 workers are employed in the oil and gas industries. Last year, employment in those fields shrank by 20 percent, even though record amounts of gas were produced.</div><div>
</div><div>• The New Mexico Oil and Gas Association claimed that stopping fracking on public lands would cost 60,000 jobs. But total oil and gas employment in the state is only about 20,000 (about 2.6 percent of the workforce), and jobs in the industry declined by about 25 percent in 2020.</div><div>
</div><div>Oil production forecasted to reach record high in 2023</div><div>The analysis came at a time when oil and gas production is expected to increase across the nation. The federal Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts that U.S. oil production will average 12.4 million barrels per day during 2023, surpassing the record high for domestic crude oil production set in 2019 under the Trump administration.</div><div>
</div><div>In its January Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), EIA forecasts U.S. crude oil production will increase for nine consecutive quarters, from the fourth quarter of 2021 through 2023. EIA also expects OPEC to increase its crude oil production to 28.9 million barrels per day in 2023, up from an average of 26.3 million barrels per day in 2021.</div><div>
</div><div>“We expect global demand for petroleum products to return to and surpass pre-pandemic levels this year, but crude oil production grows at a faster rate in our forecasts,” said EIA Acting Administrator Steve Nalley. “We expect that as crude oil production increases, inventories will begin to replenish and help push prices lower for gasoline, jet fuel, and other products in the short term.”</div><div>
</div><div>The agency also forecasts that U.S. commercial crude oil inventories will reach 465 million barrels at the end of 2023, about 11% more than inventories at the end of 2021.</div><div>
</div><div>The entire Short-Term Energy Outlook is available on the EIA website.</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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