Richmond CA
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see fake news/newspaper
see soda beverage on corp personhood
see ej permian proud greenwash paper
816 capt
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Chevron’s faux news site exploits local journalism’s decline, epitomizing the fossil fuel industry’s insidious greenwashing strategies
Special ProgramsClimate & Energy
Written by Evlondo Cooper
:{Published 08/28/24
Chevron-sponsored “news” site Permian Proud represents one of the fossil fuel industry's latest and most insidious greenwashing strategies, exploiting the decline of local journalism to shape public opinion in oil-rich regions. This tactic epitomizes a broader trend of deceptive practices by Big Oil, which — combined with national TV news’ failure to scrutinize the industry amid the escalating climate crisis — highlights an urgent need for robust accountability reporting.
Chevron's PR firm published a local “news” site without journalists
Felicia Alvarez's investigation for Floodlight, published in the Louisiana Illuminator, exposed Chevron's Permian Proud as a calculated ploy to manipulate public opinion under the guise of local journalism. The site, devoid of actual reporters or editors, is crafted by a San Francisco PR firm and a Chevron public affairs adviser, eliminating any pretense of editorial independence or journalistic integrity.
A search of the Permian Proud’s two-year-old website shows just a smattering of stories about climate change or greenhouse gas emissions — despite the oil and gas industry’s leading role in causing the climate crisis. As of Aug. 12, there were two stories mentioning climate change; one is a recap of a Texas Tribune series about training oil and gas workers and the other quotes a Chevron official about new techniques for measuring methane emissions.
The site has plenty of articles boasting of the importance of the Permian Basin and Chevron, sprinkled in with coverage of events, sports and awards given to local residents.
One story reported on Chevron receiving the highest environmental rating in the Permian Basin. Another announced that Chevron plans to boost its production to meet U.S. energy needs.
And the site reported on a $145,000 company donation to help students in Carlsbad, New Mexico — to pursue careers in energy and natural resources.
Notably absent is any critical coverage of the oil industry's environmental impact or role in the escalating climate crisis — and an eroding local media landscape leaves local residents vulnerable to a distorted view of the oil industry's true impact on their communities and the planet.
“Many of the counties within the Permian Basin are considered ‘news deserts,’ or areas with limited access to local, credible news sources,” Alvarez writes. “Of the 61 counties considered part of the Permian Basin region in Texas, 13 counties had no local newspapers, and the majority had only one newspaper, according to the news desert map maintained by the University of North Carolina.”
Alvarez reveals that Permian Proud isn't an isolated experiment:
It is also part of a network of Chevron-owned news outlets amplifying the company's viewpoint while publishing feel-good stories about local events and people. The same San Francisco public relations firm that provides content for Permian Proud runs the Richmond Standard news site in Richmond, California. It also operates an English-language website in Ecuador, where the energy giant has fought back decades of litigation.
This model, replicated across Chevron's operational areas, forms part of a broader strategy to control the narrative as the fossil fuel industry faces mounting scrutiny.
Permian Proud ignores climate crisis as Texas faces escalating climate disasters and environmental injustice
Texas recently endured a record-breaking heat wave, with temperatures soaring above 110 F in multiple cities. The Washington Post reported that Abilene shattered its all-time high at 113 F, while other cities set new August records. This extreme heat isn't just uncomfortable, it's potentially deadly — and it’s straining the state's power grid to its limits.
This recent crisis is just the latest example of Texas’ extreme vulnerability to climate change. A stark analysis from Public Citizen reveals that between 1980 and 2022, a staggering 44% of all billion-dollar climate and weather disasters in the country affected Texas. The state faces an onslaught of heat waves, hurricanes, floods, droughts, and wildfires that are increasing in both frequency and intensity.
The climate crisis is also creating significant financial impacts for Texas residents. Erin Douglas of The Texas Tribune reported that insurance rates in Texas have skyrocketed by 22% in 2023, twice the average national increase. Even more troubling, “many areas of the state are likely underpriced relative to their climate risk, according to a model created by the First Street Foundation, a nonprofit group of academics and experts that quantifies climate risks,” suggesting that the financial strain on homeowners is only set to worsen.
Notably, the fossil fuel industry operating in Texas bears outsized responsibility for climate change, amplifying the risks facing communities across the state:
Texas emits more greenhouse gas emissions than any other state, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. It accounts for 14% of the nation’s climate-warming emissions, and produces more than twice the total emissions of California, the next largest greenhouse gas emitter. Texas is also the nation’s largest oil and gas producing state, accounting for more than 40% of the nation’s oil production.
Beyond the climate impacts of the fossil fuel industry, Texas also faces severe environmental justice challenges. Low-income communities and communities of color bear a disproportionate burden of industrial pollution — in Port Arthur and Houston, the concentration of petrochemical facilities and other polluting industries near residential areas is a direct result of historical segregation and discriminatory land-use practices. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's permitting decisions, particularly for facilities like concrete batch plants in Harris County, have further entrenched these disparities, leading to ongoing health risks for vulnerable populations.
The fossil fuel industry deploys multifaceted deception campaigns like Permian Proud to delay climate action
As the climate crisis intensifies, the fossil fuel industry has shifted from outright denial to a broader PR campaign employing more insidious forms of deception. This multifaceted approach, exemplified by Chevron's Permian Proud, aims to manipulate public opinion and delay climate action.
Recent investigations reveal oil giants are targeting youth via gaming platforms, exploiting inconsistent social media ad labeling, and rebranding as “clean energy providers” while promoting false solutions. In addition, The Guardian exposed the industry's funding of legal efforts to block climate action, with the Republican Attorneys General Association receiving $5.8 million from oil and gas interests since 2020.
These coordinated efforts — from exploiting declining local journalism to influencing younger generations and funding legal challenges — demonstrate the fossil fuel industry’s determination to shape public opinion and policy in its favor. As climate change impacts worsen, the industry's tactics aim to preserve its dominance in a decarbonizing world despite scientific evidence demanding a rapid transition away from fossil fuels. Outlets like Permian Proud are just one facet of this larger industry campaign, underscoring the urgency of recognizing and counteracting these corporate greenwashing strategies.
Local news vacuum enables corporate narrative control
The erosion of local journalism in the United States has reached crisis levels, creating dangerous information vacuums. A Media Matters analysis in May starkly illustrated this problem: Donald Trump's recent corrupt offer to Big Oil executives, asking them to raise $1 billion for his presidential campaign while assuring that they'd be getting a “deal” due to the taxation and regulation they would avoid if he is reelected, was almost entirely ignored by top local newspapers and TV markets in key battleground states.
The 2023 Medill Local News Initiative report quantifies this crisis: Over 50% of U.S. counties now have just one local news source, or none at all. The rate of newspaper closures averages more than two per week, with 2,900 papers having shuttered since 2005 — and “all but about 100 were weeklies, which are often the sole provider of local news in small and mid-sized communities.” Most significantly, 43,000 newspaper journalists representing two-thirds of the industry's workforce have lost their jobs.
This systemic erosion of local news coverage is creating information vacuums across the country, leaving communities vulnerable to misinformation and unchecked corporate narratives — with far-reaching implications for public information and democracy. The absence of robust local journalism directly impacts civic engagement, political accountability, and public understanding of critical issues like climate change and climate solutions.
National TV news fails to consistently connect climate dots, enabling industry narratives
As local journalism crumbles, the responsibility of national media to provide comprehensive reporting about critical issues such as global warming becomes even more crucial.
However, recent Media Matters studies reveal that national outlets are falling short, particularly in their coverage of climate-related extreme weather events in places such as Texas. This failure at both the local and national level creates a dangerous information vacuum that fossil fuel companies like Chevron are eager to exploit.
In February, only 2% of cable and corporate broadcast news segments about the Texas wildfires mentioned climate change. Similarly, just 3 out of 21 broadcast news segments connected January’s Texas flooding to climate issues, while 5% of national TV news segments about the June 2023 Texas heat wave mentioned climate change.
This pattern of omission extends far beyond extreme weather coverage, undermining public understanding of the broader climate crisis. In 2023, for example, a mere 12% of climate segments on corporate broadcast networks mentioned fossil fuels. This persistent failure to connect the dots between fossil fuel consumption, global warming, and their cascading harms leaves viewers uninformed about the true drivers of climate change.
The information vacuum created by this lack of context in extreme weather reporting enables misleading narratives from the fossil fuel industry to flourish unchallenged. Chevron's Permian Proud, for instance, exploits this gap to further its Big Oil agenda, shaping public opinion in oil-rich regions without meaningful counterbalance from mainstream media. This vacuum also allows broader industry greenwashing campaigns to go largely unexamined.
Better news reporting on climate change and corporate accountability is crucial to combating industry narratives
Amid declining local journalism and inadequate national coverage, Chevron’s Permian Proud demonstrates that fossil fuel companies are increasingly willing to fill the void left by traditional journalism with their own content.
In the face of these corporate-sponsored narratives, real news outlets must be pressured to provide coverage that consistently connects extreme weather events and fossil fuels to climate change and potential solutions. This comprehensive approach is essential for public understanding of the climate crisis and for holding the fossil fuel industry accountable, empowering news audiences to cut through Big Oil's propaganda and understand the true scale of the challenge we face.
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Chevron owns this city's news site. Many stories aren't told
March 28, 2024
Heard on All Things Considered
Miranda Green
Chevron operates a major refinery in Richmond, Calif., a community with high childhood asthma rates. It also owns the city's dominant news site, putting its own spin on events, and runs similar websites in Texas and Ecuador.
Tracy J. Lee for NPR
NPR's David Folkenflik reported this story with Miranda Green ofFloodlight, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powerful interests stalling climate action.
RICHMOND, Calif. — Open flames shot upward from four smokestacks at the Chevron refinery on the western edge of Richmond, Calif. Soon, black smoke blanketed the sky.
News spread quickly that day last November, but by word of mouth, says Denny Khamphanthong, a 29-year-old Richmond resident. "We don't know the full story, but we know that you shouldn't breathe in the air or be outside for that matter," Khamphanthong says now. "It would be nice to have an actual news outlet that would actually go out there and figure it out themselves."
The city's primary local news source, The Richmond Standard, didn't cover the flare. Nor had it reported on a 2021 Chevron refinery pipeline rupture that dumped nearly 800 gallons of diesel fuel into San Francisco Bay.
Chevron is the city's largest employer, largest taxpayer and largest polluter. Yet when it comes to writing about Chevron, The Richmond Standard consistently toes the company line.
And there's a reason for that: Chevron owns The Richmond Standard.
"If you look at Chevron's website and you look at The Richmond Standard, a lot of the information is copy and paste," says Katt Ramos, a local climate activist. "They present a very skewed viewpoint that is bought and paid for by Chevron."
The site's very name evokes the history of Chevron, created when John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil was broken up by federal trust-busters more than a century ago. The Richmond Standard prides itself on being the "number one source for local, community-driven news" about the city.
The city of Richmond exists in the shadow of the nearby Chevron refinery, which has been connected to poor air quality and health issues in the nearby community.
Brian L. Frank for NPR
Around town, in coffee shops, an architect's office, at a Mexican restaurant, even at a waterside National Park Service site, the Standard is recognized as the main source of news about the city. It carries stories about charity drives and street closings. New bars and art exhibits. Youth soccer events and local concerts and safety initiatives.
Decades ago, the city relied on the Richmond Independentand the San Francisco Chronicle to report on the community. And then a pattern familiar across the U.S. unfolded. The Chronicle pulled back. The Independent got folded into a newspaper in nearby Berkeley, which itself shut down in 1984. Papers in other East Bay cities shriveled up. Now the city's news landscape is dominated by its major corporate force.
Markets where news outlets shut down are often called news deserts. The Standard has created something of a news mirage: Stories are told — but with an agenda. Facts displeasing to Chevron are omitted; hard truths softened. The company is seeking to get its point of view across and to convey that it can be trusted.
On a recent February night, a city council meeting focused repeatedly on developments involving Chevron. Not a single journalist attended in person — other than those for NPR and Floodlight.
The same San Francisco public relations firm that operates the Standard for Chevron runs a similar site about developments in the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico, where Chevron has major business interests. It also runs one of the company's sites in Ecuador, where the energy giant has fought back decades of litigation.
The Richmond Standard is a local news site funded by Chevron, which runs the large refinery in town.
Brian L. Frank for NPR
Chevron's bid to control the public discourse comes as efforts to combat climate change threaten the fossil fuel industry, especially in California. State regulators would effectively ban the sales of gas-powered cars by 2035. They released the world's first plan to achieve net-zero carbon pollution. Other states and countries have adopted similar goals.
In February, Chevron revealed that it was taking a loss of about $1.8 billion on assets mainly in California, because of a tougher regulatory climate in the state. Chevron's corporate headquarters is in San Ramon, about a 35-mile drive southeast of Richmond, though the company has moved the bulk of its workforce to Texas.
"The company saw a need to offer the community more news coverage of Richmond, which had been largely ignored by traditional media with the exception of crime stories," said Braden Reddall, a manager of external affairs at Chevron. "Most people in Richmond will tell you there is a lot more to the community than what is known and reported by traditional media outlets. It's a proud community, filled with interesting people who are doing interesting things."
Other outlets more than adequately cover Chevron, added Reddall, who earlier covered the company for the international news service Reuters.
Former schoolteacher Patricia Dornan says she reads The Richmond Standard but skips the stories about Chevron. "I don't read any of the articles about how wonderful their company is," she says.
Brian L. Frank for NPR
Lifelong Richmond resident Patricia Dornan says she cherry-picks which stories she reads in the Standard.
"If you understand that it's going to have a Chevron-Standard Oil point of view, it's fine because most of the stuff that they're putting out has nothing to do with them," says Dornan, a retired middle school teacher. "And so long as it doesn't have to do with Chevron, it's fine. I don't read any of the articles about how wonderful their company is."
Dornan volunteers at the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park. She tells visitors about the marvels of American manufacturing in a time of war and about the women welders of Richmond who were able to turn out warships in 51 days rather than two years.
Her grandmother moved to town in 1905 — just three years after the refinery first opened — and her family has been there ever since. One of the streets in town is named after her father. She says Richmond can't function without Chevron, but a true local news outlet would help hold it accountable to the community.
When she wants to know what Chevron is up to, Dornan says, "I usually ask my friends who are retirees from the refinery — what's going on?"
"Richmond deserves more news coverage"
When the Standard launched in 2014, it proclaimed: "Richmond deserves more news coverage."
"For the first time in more than 30 years, Richmond will have a community-driven daily news source dedicated to shining a light on the positive things that are going on in the community," the site announced.
Chevron presents the Standard as an investment in the Richmond community. The public relations firm operating the Standard wrote, "This site would tell the stories other outlets had lost the resources to tell."
But not all of the stories.
In the Southeast, power company money flows to news sites that attack their critics
She was an ABC News producer. She also was a corporate operative
A recent review found The Richmond Standard had published 434 stories that touch on its owner, Chevron, since the site's inception. Eight articles refer to flaring incidents. None cite oil spills. The majority of the stories that mention Chevron focus on profiles, awards ceremonies, community projects and celebrations it throws on such occasions as Black History and Hispanic Heritage months.
When Bay Area air pollution regulators secured landmark concessions from Chevron in February to settle a lawsuit, they called it a "decisive victory." The San Jose Mercury News headline cited "$20 million in fines for hundreds of air-quality violations."
The Richmond Standard was more reserved: "Chevron agreement with Air District called win for environment and energy."
The article did not clearly lay out the core of the litigation. The words "fine" and "penalty" did not appear. Careful readers might have been able to piece together what transpired: The news outlet described an agreement involving $20 million that "solidifies the future of energy production at the Richmond Refinery."
"There are a whole host of news outlets around the Bay Area that cover the refinery," said Reddall, the Chevron spokesperson. "The Standard seeks to fill in the gaps. From where I'm sitting, I don't think that it's a refinery that's not written about."
Richmond is a working-class city of 115,000 — nearly half of whom are Latino. Most of the people who work at the Chevron refinery live outside the city.
Brian L. Frank for NPR
A news mirage
Boundaries blur between city and corporation in this largely working-class city of 115,000 people, almost half of whom are Latino. The tech boom of nearby Silicon Valley and the opulence of neighboring Marin County feel like universes away.
The public high school's mascot is the Oilers. Streets are named Ammonia and Petrolite and Xylene. Chevron's network of pipes, low-lying cooling ponds and even sulfuric stench have become defining parts of the town's character. A nature park where tufted egrets and hummingbirds frolic abuts the nearly 3,000-acre refinery itself — an expansive preserve of smokestacks, pipelines and tanks.
Chevron, which recorded $21.3 billion in profits last year, has played an outsized role in Richmond for decades. It supplies the city with jobs — yet most Chevron employees live elsewhere. It pays roughly $50 million a year to Richmond — more than a sixth of the town's annual revenue.
The company's relationship with Richmond turned sour rather abruptly in 2012. An explosion at the refinery engulfed 19 employees in a cloud of light gas oil that had been partially vaporized, according to a federal investigation. The air pollution from the resulting industrial fire could be seen from miles away. In the ensuing days, 15,000 Bay Area residents went to medical centers for respiratory complications.
The Richmond High School mascot is the Oilers.
Brian L. Frank for NPR
State and local prosecutors charged Chevron with criminal negligence and other crimes;the company settled by pleading no contest to six charges, paying out roughly $10 million to affected local residents, agencies and hospitals. Chevron also paid $5 million directly to the city of Richmond to settle a separate civil lawsuit.
By the time of the incident, political sentiment in Richmond started to swing away from the company. As the months passed, progressives were threatening to take control of the city government. They promoted a future without the refinery — just as Chevron was seeking approval from city officials for a sweeping project to overhaul and modernize it.
As the 2014 election cycle dawned, Chevron took action to make sure its voice was heard. It promised a huge investment in scholarships and public health programs.
Chevron also spent $3 million to help propel pro-industry candidates. They all lost. "The election became a referendum on Chevron," said Tom Butt, at the time a city council member who won election as mayor.
Chevron also launched The Richmond Standard that year.
From the outset, the company disclosed its involvement. In small letters at the top of its homepage, the site reads "Funded by Chevron."
Tom Butt was elected mayor of Richmond in 2014. He says that election was a referendum on Chevron.
Brian L. Frank for NPR
In the aftermath of the election, the Standard published a 428-word statement from Chevron in its entirety that defended the company's actions and criticized the city's new leaders. "The question for Richmond is: Will local leaders recognize that business is integral to the city's success?" the Chevron statement read. "Or, will city leaders continue to oppose efforts to create growth, preferring instead to watch the business climate — and the prosperity that business helps generate — decline?"
"We should be outraged"
Katt Ramos, who helps lead Communities for a Better Environment's Richmond chapter, stages tours to demonstrate what she says is Chevron's destructive legacy. It also illustrates what happens when independent local news disappears.
She stops by Peres K-8 School in the Iron Triangle, a nickname derived from the three train tracks that intersect here. Older kids play soccer on a field with a coach while younger ones cavort on a playground. Beyond the school fence, the Chevron plant stands less than a mile away. A sign next to the school's entrance warns of a shallow hazardous liquid pipeline from another petroleum company, Phillips 66, a warning to not dig there.
"Nothing that is normalized about childhood is normalized in Richmond," Ramos says. Adults have to tell kids they can't play outdoors due to a high number of bad air days, she says.
"Nothing that is normalized about childhood is normalized in Richmond," says Katt Ramos, a local climate activist. She says the city's air pollution problems and residents' health issues are rarely covered in the news.
Brian L. Frank for NPR
Perhaps the best way of gauging the seriousness of such concerns is to look at child admissions to emergency rooms for asthma, says Anne Kelsey Lamb, who oversees asthma research for the Oakland-based Public Health Institute. Children in the ZIP code of the Iron Triangle — which includes the refinery as well as the neighborhoods surrounding the Peres school — are admitted for emergency care for asthma at triple the rate for California at large. (The institute provided an analysis of the most recent available state statistics at the request of NPR and Floodlight.)
Parceling out responsibility for air pollution is complicated, given Richmond's many highways and railroads, along with the refinery. The regional board that regulates air quality found that Chevron accounts for 63% of all particle pollution in Richmond and two neighboring towns.
These issues rarely get covered, Ramos says. She starts to weep gently when talking about the city's future.
"I think at best we should be outraged, you know?" she says. "Everyone should be concerned about the conditions that our community has to face."
The PR firm running the Standard
While Chevron owns the Standard, San Francisco-based Singer Associates runs it from across the bay. The consulting firm is known for handling PR crises. Founder Sam Singer is no stranger to Richmond; he grew up in Berkeley and briefly worked at the Richmond Independent and a sister paper before moving on.
Singer Associates has written that the news outlet came about after Chevron developed a "fractured relationship with many stakeholders including city government leaders." The site was part of an effort "to provide the company with greater freedom to operate by increasing awareness for the positive role it plays in Richmond," according to Singer's application for an industry award, as cited in a U.S. House Natural Resources Committee staff report.
A man fishes for leopard sharks in the waterways along Point Richmond that are a thoroughfare for petroleum and have been the site of several oil and chemical spills.
Brian L. Frank for NPR
Most Standard articles are written by Singer Associates employee Mike Aldax, a former reporter for the San Francisco Examiner and the Bay City News Service. (Aldax did not return messages seeking comment.) The site also hired two journalists who live in Richmond to write for the site.
"Our team has worked hard to build relationships with the community, which is why people trust us, and turn to us, to cover community stories," Singer wrote in an email for this story.
The pace of reporting ebbs and flows. Some featured videos on the Standard's homepage are several years old. The metabolism of fresh posts stepped up in early March, shortly after NPR and Floodlight first sent a series of queries about the Standard to Chevron and Singer for this story.
Chevron newsrooms begin in South America
In launching the Standard, Chevron followed a path the fossil fuel giant had first forged thousands of miles to the south.
Since 2009, Singer has run The Amazon Post in Ecuador at Chevron's direction. The English-language site emerged as Chevron confronted lengthy multibillion-dollar litigation seeking to hold it liable for the pollution from oil drilling there. (Chevron had acquired Texaco in 2001, which was responsible for the oil extraction.) Chevron's legal battle spread to other nations, including the U.S. and Brazil. The American attorney who led the suits against Chevron for Ecuadorian farmers and Indigenous peoples was a frequent target of the site. He was ultimately disbarred in New York for his actions in the case.
Flames flicker through the thick green trees of the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest — where gas flares, oil wells and refineries darken the landscape and poison the environment — shown in Shushufindi, Ecuador, in 2023. The legacy there of Texaco, which Chevron acquired, has inspired lengthy legal battles in several countries.
Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images
A subsequent Spanish-language site called Juicio Crudo (an allusion to crude oil) focusessquarely on a damning legal judgment against Chevron that a U.S. court later found to be fraudulent. It reprints text directly from Chevron's Spanish-language press releases.
By contrast, El Oriente, a Spanish-language digital outlet launched in 2019, presents itself as a news site aimed at audiences who reside in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Until recently, it noted at the bottom of its page that it is "sponsored by Chevron." Days after NPR and Floodlight started posing questions about Chevron's sites, the affiliation was moved to the top, just beneath the site's name.
The sites link to one another. Chevron says those sites are managed separately, not by Singer.
In at least one instance, the controversies surrounding Chevron in Ecuador inspired fodder for the Standard back in Richmond.
In 2014, Richmond's then-mayor, Gayle McLaughlin, traveled to see Ecuador's environmental degradation at a time when her party was seeking to force Chevron to pay more to the city.
Shortly after she returned home, the Standard's Aldax reported: "The mayor's six-day trip to Ecuador was in support [of] the South American nation in its ongoing battle against Chevron, which it falsely blames for polluting the rain forest."
Aldax wrote that McLaughlin was late in filing $4,499 in expenses for the trip, which had been paid for by the Ecuadorian government. The article embedded a
produced by The Amazon Post.
Gayle McLaughlin, then Richmond's mayor, speaks onstage during a 2014 event in Los Angeles.
Mike Windle/Getty Images
It was a rare instance of the Standard producing anything other than benign community news. She had to pay a $200 fine.
Today, McLaughlin calls her misstep minor. She tells NPR and Floodlight she believes the story was intended as a warning to Chevron's critics that it could embarrass them or just ignore them altogether.
Politicians say this Florida news site lets them buy coverage. Is your state next?
"The Richmond Standard will never, ever print anything that is critical of Chevron," McLaughlin says, "and it will never print anything that upholds the community's victories against Chevron. And we need to spread the word about those victories."
Expanding to Texas
Chevron launched its latest newsroom, called Permian Proud, in the Permian Basin in August 2022.
The site posts stories about West Texas and New Mexico. They are home to the nation's highest-producing oil fields, where Chevron has substantial drilling interests — and where local news has been hard hit. Permian Proud explained its mission this way: "We aim to complement the important work of existing local media by providing hyper-local news you won't find anywhere else."
Unlike California, Texas is a deeply red state with a broader base of support for the oil and gas industry. Even so, Chevron's future there is similarly deeply reliant on the goodwill of residents and regulators.
"Over the past year and a half, Permian Proud has put a spotlight on national spelling bee contestants, the local arts community, nonprofit organizations, community events, high school sports, industry accomplishments, and much more," Chevron spokesperson Catie Matthews wrote in a statement for this story. "Additionally, the platform has amplified coverage of local stories by other news outlets, and provided a digital arm to some of our rural communities and smaller nonprofit organizations who would otherwise not have one."
Permian Proud also promotes Chevron's perspective.
Many of the articles on the site are rewritten press releases. For example, Permian Proud's article "Chevron's Permian Basin operations to tap into more recycled water," is almost identical to Chevron's press release. The original text read, "By using recycled water in our fracking operations, we help preserve fresh water and groundwater in drought-prone areas." Permian Proud swapped "Chevron helps" for "we help."
Among the few listed bylines: Mike Aldax of Singer and The Richmond Standard.
Ramos says locals share news about Chevron by word of mouth because The Richmond Standard is "giving us the opposite of the truth."
Brian L. Frank for NPR
Relying on word of mouth
In the absence of independent local news sources, Richmond residents say they rely on each other for accurate information.
A husband-and-wife team started a small news site last year. A former mayor shares his thoughts about local politics in a newsletter. When school is in session, journalism students at the nearby University of California, Berkeley cover Richmond as part of their studies. A nonprofit group has held listening sessions about plans to extend a hyperlocal site to the area. And sometimes — when the news is big enough — San Francisco TV stations cross the bay to cover it.
But mostly, there's word of mouth. Activist Katt Ramos points to the February 2021 pipeline rupture. As Chevron publicly conceded, a resident spotted the tainted water long before Chevron or any news outlet alerted the community.
"A lot of our news is really from me, gathered by our local kind of independent folks that go around covering things for us," Ramos said. "Because we have to deal with publications like The Richmond Standard that are giving us the opposite of the truth."
*Felicia Alvarez, Maria Fernanda Bernal and Richard Tzul of the University of California at Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism contributed to this report.
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win 4/20 coal export nixed by city council?
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richmond st'd chev newspaper
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[### Chevron owns this city's news site. Many stories aren't told
NPR
https://www.npr.org › 2024/03/28 › chevron-fossil-fuel...](https://www.npr.org/2024/03/28/1239650727/chevron-fossil-fuel-richmond-standard-california-news)
Mar 28, 2024 — Chevron operates a major refinery in Richmond, Calif., a community with high childhood asthma rates. It also owns the city's dominant news site.
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[### Chevron's faux news site exploits local journalism's decline ...
Media Matters for America
https://www.mediamatters.org › local-news › chevrons-fa...](https://www.mediamatters.org/local-news/chevrons-faux-news-site-exploits-local-journalisms-decline-epitomizing-fossil-fuel)
6 hours ago — ... Richmond Standard news site in Richmond, California. It also ... false solutions. In addition, The Guardian exposed the industry's ...
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[### A Chevron PR website pretends to be an objective news ...
Los Angeles Times
https://www.latimes.com › business › hiltzik › la-fi-mh-...](https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-a-chevron-pr-website-20140922-column.html)
Sep 22, 2014 — News · Home Page · California · Election 2024 · Housing & Homelessness · Politics · Science & Medicine · World & Nation · Business · Artificial ...
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[### 'Wildfire of disinformation': how Chevron exploits a news ...
The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com › media › sep › chevron-...](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/sep/12/chevron-newspaper-local-news-permian-proud-site)
Sep 12, 2022 — Since 2014, according to Gizmodo, Aldax “has also written for a Chevron-funded newspaper in California called the Richmond Standard”. ... fake ...
[### Chevron, With $3 Million and False "News" Site, Tries To ...
OCCUPY.COM
https://www.occupy.com › article › chevron-3-million-...](https://www.occupy.com/article/chevron-3-million-and-false-news-site-tries-buy-richmond-elections?qt-article_tabs=2)
Chevron, With $3 Million and False "News" Site, Tries To Buy Richmond ... Still, leaving coverage of the election to Chevron's PR organ, the Richmond ...
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[### Chevron creates its own news outlet for a poor city that it ...
Grist.org
https://grist.org › climate-energy › chevron-creates-its-o...](https://grist.org/climate-energy/chevron-creates-its-own-news-outlet-for-a-poor-city-that-it-pollutes/)
Mar 24, 2014 — The Richmond Standard is a hyperlocal journalism site launched in January with the hallmarks of a typical Patch site (before said service was dumped by AOL).
[### Chevron owns this city's news site. Many stories aren't told.
floodlightnews.org
https://floodlightnews.org › chevron-owns-this-citys-ne...](https://floodlightnews.org/chevron-owns-this-citys-news-site-many-stories-arent-told/)
Mar 28, 2024 — Chevron operates a major refinery in Richmond, Calif., a community with high childhood asthma rates. It also owns the city's dominant news site.
Missing: fake | Show results with: fake
[### Chevron Corporation Takes on First Amendment Powers in ...
Move to Amend
https://www.movetoamend.org › corporate-rule-example...](https://www.movetoamend.org/corporate-rule-examples-19)
Chevron Corporation Takes on First Amendment Powers in Richmond, CA. Evan ... In an age of “fake news” and growing media consolidation, the sourcing of ...
[### Chevron dominated this Bay Area city's news. Now, that ...
SFGATE
https://www.sfgate.com › Local](https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/oil-company-bay-area-city-news-change-19566016.php)
Jul 13, 2024 — For years, the leading news source of Richmond, California, was funded by Chevron. Last month, hyperlocal nonprofit newsroom Richmondside ...
Missing: fake | Show results with: fake
[### Chevron PR Firm's Local "News" Site Draws Attention from ...
DeSmog
https://www.desmog.com › 2016/09/18 › chevron-pr-fir...](https://www.desmog.com/2016/09/18/chevron-pr-firm-s-local-news-site-draws-attention-koch-industries-others-alarming-media-watchdogs/)
Sep 18, 2016 — ... Richmond Independent — a Richmond, California-focused newspaper that folded in 1978. ... False Solutions · Activism · Canada · Finance · Opinion.
Chevron Pr Firm's Local... · All The Pr That's Fit To... · 'a Deceptive Atmosphere'
Missing: fake | Show results with: fake
===
sjr 19 2014
https://www.congress.gov/congressional-report/113th-congress/senate-report/223/1
... Corporate entities, drawing upon million-dollar and
billion-dollar treasuries to advance their corporate interests
and enhance their bottom-line, now have the capacity to drown
out the voices of hardworking Americans in Federal elections.
This unfettered corporate money released by Citizens United can
perhaps have the greatest impact and disproportionately high
return on investment for corporations in State and local
elections. One prominent example of this phenomena occurred in
Richmond, California last year.
After the mayor and city council sought to limit pollution
and demand higher safety standards at a Chevron refinery in the
town,\101 Chevron poured $1.6 million into a Super PAC during
the 2012 city council race, defeating two council candidates
who supported the efforts.\102
In addition to corporate
spending in the council races, almost $2.7 million was spent by
the American Beverage Association, Cinemark INC, and Regal
Entertainment to fund a campaign against a ballot measure that
would have taxed sugar-sweetened beverages.
As a result,
campaigns in Richmond spent at least $40 per resident in the
2012 election.\104 While $1.4 million was a drop in the bucket
for a billion-dollar company like Chevron, ordinary Richmond
residents were bombarded with the highest election expenditure
in the city's history.
---
\101\Tawanda Kanhema, Citizens Outspent: Inside Richmond's $4m
Election Campaign, Richmond Confidential, Nov. 5, 2012, available at
http://richmondconfidential.org/2012/11/05/citizens-outspent-inside-
richmonds-4m-election-campaign/.
\102\John Geluardi, Stephen Hobbs, et al., Election recap: Voters
seek familiar faces, Richmond Confidential, Nov. 8, 2012, available at
http://richmondconfidential.org/2012/11/08/election-recap-voters-seek-
familiar-faces.
\103\See Kanhema, supra note 101; Geluardi, supra note 102.
\104\Kanhema, supra note 101.
\105\Id.
---
Corporations, of course, are not alone in their desire to
use their financial largess to influence the elections and
public policies impacting their interests. Citizens United and
its progeny have also given rise to an elite class of wealthy,
mega-donors who exercise tremendous influence on elections.
For the millionaires and billionaires hoping to expand
their influence on elections, the Supreme Court's decision in
McCutcheon v. FEC is the gift that keeps on giving. McCutcheon
eliminated the $123,200 aggregate, per cycle cap on individual
donations to Federal candidates, PACs, and parties. Now,
wealthy donors can give as much as $3.5 million each cycle to
all candidates, parties, and PACs.\106 Those separate
donations can be transferred between and coordinated by the
groups, allowing donors to circumvent limits on donations to a
particular candidate or party....
===
===
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugary_drink_tax 920
===
but they are not asserting 1st amend protections?
https://movetoamend.org/corporate-rule-examples-19
Chevron Corporation Takes on First Amendment Powers in Richmond, CA
Evan Aczon
January 2018
Earlier this year, a Move To Amend story about corporate abuse of power addressed the looming physical and financial presence of oil giant Chevron Corporation over the town of Richmond, California.^1 The refinery is the biggest employer in the city, providing work for roughly 1200 employees and taking up nearly 3000 acres, sprawling across the landscape as you look out from the Richmond Hills to the San Francisco Bay and Golden Gate Bridge just beyond.
Yet there is a dark duality of the Chevron plant, where the daily output of smoke and exhaust is matched by the corporatism seeping into the very fabric of Richmond’s governance and its municipal and regional politics. Physical explosions and fires sent residents scrambling for shelter in 1989, 1999, 2012, and 2016, resulting in thousands of hospitalizations and millions of dollars in settlements. Unpaid taxes and lawsuits kept money out of the local coffers while taking huge tax cuts from the federal government.
The most toxic output from the Chevron refinery, however, may not be coming from the smokestacks, but from the printing presses. In a truly blatant exercise of illegitimate corporate power under the First Amendment (these rights belong to natural persons, not corporate entities), Chevron Corporation has bankrolled an entire public relations operation posing as a local news website,The Richmond Standard, which states the following:
This news website is brought to you by Chevron Richmond. We aim to provide Richmond residents with important information about what's going on in the community, and to provide a voice for Chevron Richmond on civic issues.
Whether or not that disclaimer is present is not what is at issue here. What matters is that Chevron is openly publishing its own opinions in the form of a community news website, posting updates on local events like marathons and holiday parades, while also sprinkling in subtly anti-activist, stories about climate change marchers and Chevron-supporting stories about its “community work.” 2 3
As noted in a 2014 piece from the Los Angeles Times, the Chevron Corporation even stated that there would be nothing critical of the oil giant in The Richmond Standard,saying, “We came out in the beginning and said, if you're looking for a story that's critical of Chevron, you're not going to find it in The Richmond Standard."^4
The outlet has also become a primary outlet for Richmond Mayor Tom Butt, who frequently pens letters to the community through The Richmond Standard. Butt’s policies and positions also appear frequently and with marked support from Chevron.
The corporatization of a “news source” is something that should frighten all residents, especially when that outlet is being bankrolled by one of the biggest corporate welfare recipients in the country. In an age of “fake news” and growing media consolidation, the sourcing of journalism and the integrity of the content we’re reading online should always face strict scrutiny.
When corporations assume First Amendment press freedoms to enter the journalistic marketplace with their own biased coverage, endorsing candidates, ballot measures, and policies, they are implementing a right never intended for the corporate form in a democracy.
“Corporate news” can be unbridled pay-to-play, promotion of company positions at low cost and it should be sought out and stopped at the source. Most importantly, the right of corporations to constitutional First Amendment freedoms of the press must be withdrawn by the people and their legislative bodies.
Join Move to Amend and work to make it clear that corporations should not have constitutional rights and that money is not a form of protected speech! To join the movement, please visit: www.movetoamend.org/amendment.
Read more:
- Chevron Refinery Harms Local Communities in California |Move To Amend
- 170 activists, some from Richmond, rankle Amtrak passengers and conductors on cross country trip |Richmond Standard
- Over 450 community members tour Chevron Richmond Refinery |Richmond Standard
- A Chevron PR website pretends to be an objective news source | Michael Hiltzik
==
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/upshot/california-banning-soda-taxes-a-new-industry-strategy-is-stunning-some-lawmakers.html
June 27, 2018
For years, the soda industry had an ironclad strategy when a city wanted to enact a soda tax:
Spend a lot of money, rally local businesses, and shoot it down.
That strategy worked again and again, until it didn’t. In 2014, Berkeley, Calif., passed the nation’s first tax on sugary drinks, which have been linked to heart disease, obesity and tooth decay. Since then, eight communities, including three more cities in California, enacted similar bills.
Now the beverage industry has a new approach. Instead of fighting the ordinances city by city, it is turning to states, trying to pass laws preventing any local governments from taxing their products.
In California, the legislature passed a bill Thursday that will pre-empt any new local beverage or food taxes for 12 years.Arizona and Michigan have passed similar laws. In Oregon, the state’s grocers have collected enough signatures to bring a ballot initiative barring any taxes on grocery items. And legislators are considering pre-emption bills in other states, including Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Washington.
“It’s a little bit like, instead of playing a game of whack-a-mole, you could just put a sheet of plywood over all the holes,” said Franco Ripple, a spokesman for the Campaign to Defend Local Solutions, a group that was founded last year to oppose state laws that limit local autonomy.
The beverage industry says the statewide measures are an appropriate way to protect local businesses and consumers from higher taxes. “People across the country are taxed enough, and they can’t afford new taxes on what they eat and drink,” said William Dermody, the vice president for media and public affairs at the American Beverage Association, an industry trade group.
In California, the arrival of the bill to pre-empt soda taxes, which was championed by the soda industry and introduced over the weekend, came as a shock to public health advocates and many state lawmakers. The state has passed more soda taxes than any other, shepherded by progressive lawmakers who see them as a source of revenue for schools and public services and a tool to fight obesity and diabetes. Scott Wiener, a state senator who represents San Francisco and parts of San Mateo County, said the beverage industry had successfully held California “hostage.”
Bill Monning, the Senate majority leader, was one of a handful of Democrats who voted against the bill. He called its passage “unprecedented” and said it would stop cities and counties “from being able to take steps to protect the health of their residents.” But he also said that state lawmakers would redouble their efforts to curb consumption of sugary drinks. He pointed out that the Senate health committee had just voted in favor of a bill that would require warning labels on sugary drinks indicating that they contribute to various health problems.
“It’s a sad day for democracy in California,” he said. “But ever the optimist I think that the outrage of Big Soda blackmailing the state legislature and the people of California is going to boomerang.”
Beverage companies spent at least $7 million to get an initiative on the ballot this November that would have prevented local communities from raising taxes without approval from two-thirds of voters or an elected body, rather than a simple majority. Such a change would have made it much more difficult for localities to pay for police, fire, transit and other public services.
According to several state senators, the industry then went to lawmakers in Sacramento with a proposal: Pass a bill banning soda and food taxes, and the industry would drop its November ballot initiative.
“They sent us a ransom note that they will drop this horrible ballot measure if we put a 12-year moratorium on local soda taxes,” said Mr. Wiener, who has long supported soda taxes and voted against the bill that now bars them. “It’s a classic case of picking your poison. The soda industry has gone completely rogue.”
Several top lawmakers said they opposed the measure banning soft drink taxes, known as Senate Bill 872, but many felt obliged to support it because they were so worried about the effects of the broader ballot initiative.
Nancy Skinner, a state senator who represents Richmond, Calif., as well as three cities that passed soda taxes in 2016, voted against the measure but said she recognized that her colleagues who supported it were in a bind. The law will not overturn soda taxes enacted before 2018, but it will prevent any new ones, including a soda tax on the ballot later this year in Richmond. “It is totally wrong to deny the residents of Richmond a vote,” she said.
Gov. Jerry Brown avoided taking a position on the bill until Thursday but has now signed it into law. Critics of the bill pointed to a photo that shows him posing with executives from Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and the American Beverage Association at a recent private dinner at the governor’s mansion. The governor’s spokesman said the meeting was unrelated to the soda tax measure.
The push for the pre-emption law began to materialize this year when an industry-financed group, the California Business Roundtable, started collecting signatures for the ballot initiative making local tax increases harder. The American Beverage Association California PAC contributed heavily to the effort, raising $6 million from Coke and Pepsi, $1 million from Dr Pepper Snapple and $100,000 from Red Bull.
The deal, reported by The Sacramento Bee on Sunday, which called it “a shakedown,” provoked a fierce outcry across the state and the country. The American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, the American Cancer Society and more than 20 other groups issued a joint statement on Tuesday calling on Mr. Brown to oppose it and chiding the soda industry for “resorting to backroom deals and underhanded efforts to preserve its profits.”
The beverage association, which supported the California legislation, said its turn to pre-emption simply reflected its view that taxes on drinks represented an unfair burden — not just on them, but on retailers, bottlers, shipping companies and consumers.
Mr. Dermody noted that, in several states, the pre-emption bills are backed by a coalition of business interests, including grocery stores, and, in some cases, labor unions.
The California measure is part of a broader national strategy by the beverage industry to head off local soda taxes, which have passed in eight communities. Berkeley’s passage of a major soda tax paved the way for other cities to act. Philadelphia, San Francisco, Oakland, Calif., and the county that includes Chicago imposed their own such measures in 2016, followed by Seattle in 2017. The soda industry spent at least $38 million fighting the taxesin 2016, which were backed by public health advocates and the billionaires Laura and John Arnold and Michael R. Bloomberg, former mayor of New York, who contributed $20 million to the Bay Area soda tax campaign.
The experience of the places that adopted soda taxes has been mixed. Research in Berkeley, Philadelphia and Mexico, which has a similar tax, shows that the measures appear to increase beverage prices and reduce sugary drink sales.
But there has been backlash. Cook County in Illinois repealed its tax in the face of voter complaints and industry pressure. And Mayor Jim Kenney of Philadelphia has had to back away from his initial claims that beverage tax revenue would provide enough money to pay for a universal prekindergarten program for the city, as revenue has come in below projections. Definitive evidence about public health effects of the bills is still a long way off.
The beverage companies have borrowed a tactic from the tobacco industry, which used state pre-emption laws in the 1980s to ban cigarette taxes and other municipal antismoking ordinances.Republican-controlled state legislatures have also increasingly used state pre-emption laws to prevent cities and towns from adopting a wide range of local measures, including anti-discrimination laws, bans on natural gas fracking, higher minimum wages, and restrictions on the use of plastic bags.
“The irony is that the soda companies screamed very loudly about government overreach when soda taxes began to get passed,” said Kelly Brownell, the dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. “But now they are looking for the ultimate government overreach when it works in their favor.”
Anahad O’Connor is a staff reporter covering health, science, nutrition and other topics. He is also a bestselling author of consumer health books such as “Never Shower in a Thunderstorm” and “The 10 Things You Need to Eat.”
Margot Sanger-Katz is a domestic correspondent and writes about health care for The Upshot. She was previously a reporter at National Journal and...
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==
cty sheriff? sez no longer do ICE detention (only one in SFBA? 7/11/18
==
G mcl running for lt gov 4/18
04.23.18 - 11:00AM
The Ralph Nader Radio Hour – April 23, 2018
===
3/18 update
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04042018/climate-change-fossil-fuel-company-lawsuits-timeline-exxon-children-california-cities-attorney-general
...
Cities Sue Over Sea Level Rise
Faced with the possibility of devastating consequences brought by rising sea levels, six cities and three counties in California, along with New York City, filed civil lawsuits against several oil and gas companies.
The lawsuits make a public nuisance claim and, in some cases, allege negligence. Essentially the lawsuits say the oil and gas companies have known for decades that burning fossil fuels is one of the biggest contributors to global warming. Instead of acting to reduce harm, the cities charge, companies attempted to undermine climate science and mislead the public by downplaying the risk posed by fossil fuels.
The lawsuits seek billions of dollars to pay for mitigation measures such as sea walls to protect coastal property. The oil and gas companies responded by seeking to move the cases to federal courts, where nuisance claims are less likely to succeed. That jurisdictional battle rages on, with the cases divided between state and federal courts.
Key Events:
July 17, 2017: San Mateo County, Marin County and Imperial Beach file separate lawsuits in California Superior Court seeking damages from 37 fossil fuel companies over sea level rise.
Sept. 19, 2017: San Francisco and Oakland file lawsuits in California Superior Court seeking damages from five fossil fuel companies over sea level rise.
Dec. 20, 2017: Santa Cruz and Santa Cruz County file lawsuits in California Superior Court against 29 fossil fuel companies, seeking compensation for climate change-related damage.
Jan. 8, 2018: Exxon asks a Texas court to grant a discovery order allowing the company to question officials in counties and cities suing.
Jan. 9, 2018: New York City files suit in federal court against five fossil fuel companies over climate change-related costs.
Jan. 22, 2018: City of Richmond files lawsuit in California Superior Court against 29 fossil fuel companies.
March 16, 2018: Federal judge rules some of the cases should be tried in state court, creating a conflict with another judge who ruled similar cases belong in federal court.
March 21, 2018: Federal judge overseeing the San Francisco and Oakland cases hosts a climate change tutorial for the court.
==
http://www.alternet.org/environment/3000-people-will-die-because-california-lawmakers-extended-cap-and-trade
A recent bill was celebrated as one of California’s greatest climate policy achievements, but it is actually a huge blow to the cause of environmental justice worldwide.
Richmond, California, has been my home for the past 15 years. It’s also home to the largest refinery on the west coast, operated by Chevron, California’s single largest stationary source of greenhouse gas emissions.
For almost four years, Richmond’s environmental justice advocates have been campaigning to prevent Chevron from embarking on a major refinery expansion that would allow the facility to process dirtier, heavier tar sands crude. The campaign fought to convince the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), the regional air pollution regulator, to establish a refinery-based cap on greenhouse gases and toxic co-pollutants. Such a cap would help reduce the toxic pollution hotspots in Richmond and neighboring refinery communities. Public health experts estimated that such a cap could save 800 to 3,000 lives regionally over 40 years.
Chevron, awash in tar sands dreams, fought back. They argued that the state cap-and-trade system, administered by the California Air Resources Board, already regulated carbon emissions and that additional BAAQMD regulations would interfere with the state’s policy. But in April 2017, CARB sent a game-changing opinion to BAAQMD, clarifying that not only was it okay for BAAQMD to impose stronger rules, but that the state supported them, and “agree[d] more can and must be done to deliver real reductions in pollutants that are impacting the health of residents living near refineries.”
On the day before Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement, BAAQMD approved a motion to finalize the world’s strongest and most ambitious refinery pollution cap, a remarkable achievement won after years of grassroots, community struggle.
Cap-and-trade bill a blow to environmental justice
Chevron couldn’t let that victory stand. It went to Sacramento to kill the rule, and it succeeded. The cap-and-trade bill, which the California legislature passed Monday night, blocks the ability of local air quality agencies from establishing rules limiting greenhouse gases.
The bill also includes a host of other concessions to polluters, including giving away tens of billions of dollars’ worth of free carbon emissions allowances (the vast majority which benefits the oil and gas industry), and allowing polluters to buy carbon offsets instead of actually reducing emissions.
By buying offsets, a polluter like Chevron can continue polluting as usual, or even process tar sands and thus increase its emissions. Offsets let polluters off the hook while allowing pollution hotspots to perpetuate, condemning communities like mine to decades more of toxic pollution.
What racism looks like
Race is the most important predictor of whether a person lives near pollution. You see it in Richmond, where almost 80 percent of people living within a mile of the refinery are people of color.
The 3,000 people that analysis showed would die prematurely if the refinery cap was not put in place—their deaths will not be evenly spread throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. They will not be evenly distributed between rich and poor, white and black. Science and data shows us that they will predominately be people of color.
This is institutional racism: when a bipartisan legislature pushes through public policies like AB 398 that look at the “big picture” and “mean well,” but really just perpetuate patterns of inequality and discrimination.
As many environmental groups in California and across the country celebrate their cap-and-trade victory, I’m reminded of the moderates King chastised. He knew that they were the biggest obstacle to progress. Fifty years later that struggle persists. King hoped for understanding but was left with disappointment.“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.” That’s what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote in 1963 to his fellow clergymen who disagreed with his strategy of nonviolence. King excoriated moderate whites who asked him to wait for “a more convenient season” to fight for justice, and said those moderates, not conservative extremists, were the biggest obstacle standing in the way of civil rights progress.
Tonight, as I write this from my home in Richmond, I am disappointed. The vote is over. And despite our efforts, 3,000 people will die, many of them in my town.
After the vote, the California Environmental Justice Alliance tweeted, “EJ communities will suffer the consequences, but our spirit is intact. The EJ community will fight another day.”
I am trying to keep my spirit intact. Since Dr. King ended his letter on a note of hope, I will try to be hopeful, even during these dark days when racism is rampant in ways both obvious and subtle.
Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty. Amen.
Michelle Chan is the vice president of programs at Friends of the Earth. She is the founder of BankTrack, and currently is the vice president of the board of Amazon Watch.
==
koch bros copy playbook of soda tax divide and conquer of ppl of color
In the age of Trump — and before him, of Obama — change from the top seems far out of reach for progressives. Some have drawn from the past and have struggled from the bottom up for a just city, perhaps the premier case being Richmond, California. Journalist Steve Early talks about Richmond, Chevron, labor — and the challenges of creating socialism in one city. He also discusses the history of leftwing municipal reformism.
Resources:
Steve Early, Refinery Town: Big Oil, Big Money, and the Remaking of an American City Beacon Press, 2017
https://kpfa.org/episode/against-the-grain-april-24-2017/
===
https://www.c-span.org/video/?423076-2/refinery-town
==
==
https://kpfa.org/event/steve-early-gayle-mclaughlin-andres-soto/
:{“Refinery Town is based on one city’s experience, but it reflects the lessons of grassroots organizing elsewhere…This timely book offers ideas and inspiration for making change where it counts the most–—among friends, neighbors, and fellow community members.”
— Senator Bernie Sanders}:
Labor Activist Steve Early documents how a largely non-white working class community of 110,000 people spawned a vibrant culture of resistance to corporate power after more than a century of political dominance by the Chevron Corporation. Richmond, California – long a proto-typical company town with one of the highest homicide rates per capita in the country, with deindustrialization, poverty, joblessness, substandard schools and housing, drug trafficking, street crime, gang violence and wild corruption in City Hall resulting in mismanagement and near bankruptcy – transformed itself over a decade into a progressive city via multi-faceted municipal reforms. These were led by labor and community activists, environmental justice campaigners, police reformers, and gay rights activists who formed the Richmond Progressive Alliance, “an unlikely group of Greens, Latinos, progressive Democrats, African Americans, and free spirits” who worked with incoming Mayor Gayle McLaughlin. Richmond became the largest U.S. city run by a Green mayor plus an ally of peasant farmers in Ecuador, which had also battled Chevron.
“As Washington remains in gridlock, the everyday citizen-heroes of Richmond, california, have been getting things done to make their city work for all. Refinery Town is essential reading for anyone seeking inspiration for what grassroots organizing can accomplish, one community at a time.”
— Robert Reich
*“Richmond’s creative resistance to Chevron is a model for environmental justice campaigners everywhere- in the U.S. and abroad – who face tough struggles of their own against Big Oil and big money in politics.”
— Annie Leonard, executive director/Greenpeace USA*
STEVE EARLY has been an organizer, lawyer, union representative, and labor activist for the past forty-five years. He is the author of three other books, including Save Our Unions: Dispatches from a Movement in Distress. He has written for The Nation, Boston Globe, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Newsday, The Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, USA Today and many other publications. He lives in Richmond, CA.
GAYLE McLAUGHLIN, former mayor of Richmond, Ca., has served as the first corporate-free progressive officeholder on the Richmond City Counil, elected first as a councilmember in 2004, then as mayor in 2006 and re-elected in 2010; having termed out as lmayor, she was elected again to the City Council in 2014. As Mayor of Richmond, Gayle led the City in a progressive direction that kept city workers in jobs and city services in place even during the recession; held Chevron accountable in terms of reducing its pollution and paying an historic $114 million dollars in additional taxes; and reduced crime dramatically. She attributes her success in elected office to having an organization behind her (one she helped create) – the Richmond Progressive Alliance.
ANDRES SOTO grew up in nearby San Pablo, raised on a diet of politics and grassroots activism, such as picketing grocery stores on behalf of the United Farm Workers. Following graduation from U.C. Berkeley, he worked for the City of Richmond helping low-income residents train for and find jobs. Long an organizer withCommunities for a Better Environment, he has been involved in stopping various crude oil shipping by rail projects, blocking the coal shipping terminal at the Port of Oakland, working to establish refinery emissions caps, and helping under-served communities get the justice, services and respect they deserve. In addition, Andres is a performing musician, and he hosts a weekly show on KPFA Radio.
Co-sponsored by:
California Nurses Assoc/NNU
National Union of Healthcare Workers
SEIU Local 1021
University Professional & Technical Employees/CWA Local 9119
Richmond Progressive Alliance
Oakland Justice Coalition
Greenpeace
Communities for a Better Enviroment
Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment
Sunflower Alliance
SF Progressive Democrats of America
East Bay Democratic Socialists of America
Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club
Solidarity
Roots Action
Coalition for Grassroots Progress
Oscar Grant Commmittee
Labor Notes
Asian Pacific Environmental Network
Socialist Alternative – Bay Area
Left Elect Network
AFSCME Local 3299
International Socialist Organization
KPFA benefit
==
aug 2013
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/8/6/chevron_to_pay_2_million_for
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevron_Richmond_Refinery
http://grist.org/climate-energy/a-year-after-a-refinery-explosion-richmond-cali-is-fighting-back/
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Chevron-guilty-of-refinery-criminal-charges-4707675.php?cmpid=twitter
As part of the deal, Chevron agreed to pay $2 million in fines and restitution and accept additional oversight and inspection of its operations during a 3 1/2-year probation period, authorities said.
The misdemeanor charges, alleging violations of California's health and labor codes, were filed Monday by the Contra Costa County district attorney and the state attorney general after an investigation of the fire in a crude oil processing unit on Aug. 6, 2012.
In a prearranged deal, an attorney for the company immediately entered pleas of no contest before Superior Court Judge William Kolin in Martinez, said Deputy District Attorney Steve Moawad.
http://www.eastbaytimes.com/west-county-times/ci_23798674/chevron-pleads-no-contest-criminal-charges-stemming-from
Chevron committed six violations of labor, health and safety standards, according to the complaint. The violations included failure to "correct deficiencies" in equipment, negligent emissions and failure to prevent employees' exposure to hazardous conditions.
Chevron pleads no contest to criminal charges stemming from Richmond refinery fire
By Robert Rogers and Malaika Fraley
Contra Costa Times
POSTED: 08/05/2013 11:25:36 AM PDT | UPDATED: 3 YEARS AGO
Aug 10:
Chevron refinery fire one year later: Fallout, impact show no signs of waning
MARTINEZ -- Chevron will pay $2 million in fines and restitution after pleading no contest Monday to six misdemeanor criminal charges stemming from a fire at its Richmond refinery last year.
Chevron attorneys accepted the terms, including 3 1/2 years of probation, $1.28 million in fines, and more than $720,000 in restitution payments to three different agencies.
The penalties resulted from joint charges filed Monday in Contra Costa Superior Court by state Attorney General Kamala Harris and Contra Costa County District Attorney Mark Peterson. The terms of the plea had been agreed to by both sides before Monday's hearing.
TV news crews, along with the curious, gather on a hillside in Point Richmond to photograph the the fire in an oil unit at the Chevron refinery in
TV news crews, along with the curious, gather on a hillside in Point Richmond to photograph the the fire in an oil unit at the Chevron refinery in Richmond, Calif., Monday, Aug. 6, 2012. (D. Ross Cameron/Staff) (D. Ross Cameron/Staff file)
"This criminal case achieves our goals of holding Chevron accountable for their conduct, protecting the public, and ensuring a safer work environment at the refinery," Peterson said in a news release. Peterson also praised Chevron for its "commitment to do more than what is required by law" to prevent future accidents.
Chevron committed six violations of labor, health and safety standards, according to the complaint. The violations included failure to "correct deficiencies" in equipment, negligent emissions and failure to prevent employees' exposure to hazardous conditions.
The Aug. 6 fire knocked out the refinery's No. 4 crude unit and sent more than 15,000 people to area hospitals complaining of respiratory discomfort and other symptoms. Subsequent investigations have revealed that the fire was caused by a corroded pipe that failed, and that the pipe had been recommended for replacement several times during the previous decade.
In addition to the $1.28 million in fines, Chevron will pay restitution to Richmond BUILD, a local workforce development program, Bay Area Air Quality Management District, Cal/OSHA and the state Attorney General's Office.
Chevron spokeswoman Melissa Ritchie issued a statement Monday saying "Chevron U.S.A. has resolved this matter by agreement with the offices of the Contra Costa County District Attorney and the Attorney General of the State of California." Ritchie added that the company is committed to improving safety at the refinery.
"We have reimbursed community members and local government agencies in Richmond and West Contra Costa County for medical and response-related costs," Ritchie said. "We are conducting a comprehensive inspection of our refinery."
Frank Pitre, of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, the law firm which is suing Chevron on behalf of the city, said it was too early to speculate on what impact if any the criminal case will have on the city's suit.
"What I can say is this is the same company that just last Friday issued a press statement calling Richmond's lawsuit meritless, yet at the same time was negotiating a settlement to resolve criminal charges against them," Pitre said. "The hypocrisy is astounding."...
==
http://richmondstandard.com/2016/01/richmond-mayor-to-pursue-taxes-and-fees-on-soda-litter-marijuana/
1/16
note this is the fake chevron news
Richmond Mayor Tom Butt announced Tuesday an intent to pursue taxes on soda and Airbnb rentals in 2016, along with a litter fee on cigarette sales, as ways to help the city fix its budget problems.
During his State of the City address Tuesday night, Butt also warned of reductions to city services as the city looks to save $8.7 million this year either through reductions in expenditures or new sources of revenue.
Late last year, an independent consultant warned Richmond City Council that the city faces a $22.7 million budget deficit by 2021 and recommended taking immediate action to raise revenue and cut expenses. The audit followed months of outside scrutiny about Richmond’s financial situation, including downgrades by the Moody’s and S&P credit rating agencies. The city faced fire after using Measure U tax revenue meant for sustained road repair to balance this year’s budget.
In December, however, Richmond received good news when S&P took the city off of credit watch on the belief the city is taking the necessary steps to address the financial issues.
Butt said the city has made progress in balancing its annual budgets, but added “the longer term trend is not sustainable.” The mayor has asked city staff to spend time every month looking for ways to save or make money.
“Until Richmond becomes a more income-diverse community, we will continue to struggle with revenues,” Butt said.
To address the revenue side, Butt said he will bring a number of proposals for taxes and fees to City Council this year.
He said he intends to revisit a proposal to tax soda in Richmond, which was rejected by voters in 2012. Butt brought up how Berkeley’s soda tax is bringing in about $2 million in annual revenue.
The mayor also pitched the idea of imposing a litter fee on cigarette sales in the city, saying a similar fee in San Francisco is netting $2 million annually in revenue.
He believes taxing the 300 or so Airbnb rentals in Richmond will bring in several hundred thousand dollars annually.
Butt says he also wants to propose raising the tax on marijuana businesses from 5 to 10 percent and imposing a tax on marijuana cultivation in the city.
In terms of addressing expenses, Butt proposes reducing city staff, cutting overtime by 25-percent and achieving concessions in employee pension and health care costs.
Despite the tough financial situation, Butt’s State of the City indicated the city was moving in a positive direction. A survey of local residents shows quality of life has been improving, and the unemployment rate in the city was recently at its lowest (5.3 percent) since WWII, which is similar to the U.S. rate. Butt also discussed strides made toward building affordable housing in the city.
Aside from the city’s financial situation, Butt said reducing crime, which saw a 5-perecent increase overall last year, will be his top priority for 2016. The mayor’s bold goal: Bring the homicide tally in 2016 down to single digits for the first time in decades.
==
blackstone rental bubble vs http://www.democracynow.org/2013/8/6/california_city_threatens_to_use_eminent
===
2014 tax soda
Richmond voters will decide this fall whether to impose what could be the nation's first municipal tax on soda and other sugary beverages - a penny-per-ounce surcharge intended to fight childhood obesity.
The City Council voted 5-2 Tuesday to place the measure on the Nov. 6 ballot, despite impassioned protests from grocers and soda drinkers.
The tax would go into the city's general fund, raising between $2 million and $8 million annually for soccer fields, school gardens, diabetes treatment and other antiobesity projects.
"Even a Twinkie has some nutritional value. But soft drinks have none. They're poisonous," said City Councilman Jeff Ritterman, a longtime Richmond doctor who proposed the measure. "I think other cities are going to follow our lead."
The tax would apply to soft drinks as well as Snapple and other beverages with added sugar. Most juice would be exempt, as would diet sodas.
The council's decision came after several hours of heated discussion. Councilmen Corky Boozé and Nathaniel Bates were the dissenting votes.
Tax on the poor
Boozé argued that the tax is unfair because it falls disproportionately on Richmond merchants and soda drinkers who have no means of shopping in neighboring cities.
"This is a tax on poor people. That's all it is," he said. "People are going to drink soda anyway. But people who can't afford carsare going to end up paying more."
Rosa Lara, a Richmond resident who delivered 900 signatures to the council opposing the measure, said an economic downturn is not the time to introduce new taxes, particularly in a city with a high poverty rate. Nearly 20 percent of Richmond residents live below the poverty line, according to federal data.
"People are already struggling to pay their bills," she said. "If the city really wants to fight obesity, why not make the streets safer so kids can play outside?"
Cities throughout the country, including San Francisco and San Pablo, have considered soda taxes as a way to reduce obesity and its related health effects. But no city has gotten as far as Richmond, said Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University.
"If these products are causing damage to the community, the community has a right to recoup those damages," he said. "I think Richmond's action is quite forward-looking. The science is solid linking soda to obesity."
Preventing deaths
A nationwide soda tax, similar to Richmond's, would prevent 100,000 cases of heart disease, 8,000 strokes and 26,000 deaths over the next decade, according to a January study by UCSF, San Francisco General Hospital and Columbia University.
In Richmond, about a third of African American and Latino sixth- and seventh-graders are obese, and an additional 20 percent are overweight, said Ritterman, who worked as a cardiologist at Kaiser Richmond for 30 years.
Soda is a prime culprit behind obesity because it's consumed far more widely than candy, ice cream or other sweets and has virtually no nutritional value, Ritterman said.
And if city residents can improve their health, and therefore feel better, they'll be more likely to become better students, parents, neighbors and citizens, said Mayor Gayle McLaughlin.
Ultimately, a healthier city will lead to less crime and be a boon for merchants, she said.
"Instead of hurting business, we think this will help business," she said. "People will see us as an innovative city. We'll be a national model."
Juan Cerritos isn't so sure. He drinks four or five Cokes a day and sells several dozen at the taqueria he owns at 27th Street and Barrett Avenue.
"I know it's unhealthy, but I like it," he said. "It tastes good. I don't know why they want to make it more expensive."
Carolyn Jones is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. carolynjones@sfchronicle.com
==
2014 yay
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/11/12661/richmond-voters-beat-chevrons-corporate-coup-d-etat
In Richmond, CA, three seats on the City Council were up for election; the city also stood to elect a new mayor. Nothing unusual in this, perhaps, was it not for Chevron's $3.1 million dollar campaign to highjack the elections, which was first revealed by journalism student and former Center for Media and Democracy reporter, Harriet Rowan in the Berkeley publication *Richmond Confidential*.
Through different independent expenditure groups, the energy behemoth launched an ad blitz targeting progressive candidates, including billboards, TV, radio and even talking door literature. At the ballot box, however, Richmond voters proved that democracy can triumph over corporate cash. Despite being outspent 20-to-1, the three Green Party and Democrat candidatestargeted in Chevron's smear campaigns -- Jovanka Beckles, Eduardo Martinez, and outgoing mayor Gayle McLaughlin -- were all elected to City Council. In a further rejection of Chevron's agenda, Tom Butt, who as a council member had taken a hard line against the company, was elected mayor.
"I think this election is a great example that money isn't always the deciding factor, and that it is possible for grassroots organizing on the ground to defeat big money," says Rowan.
Chevron's Rap Sheet
Last year, the city filed a lawsuit against the company following a disastrous fire in August of 2012 at its Richmond refinery that sent 15,000 people to the hospital over the weeks that followed, and also caused property values to drop dramatically. "It's [not about the money, it's] wanting to have some assurance that Chevron has taken the lessons learned to heart and that they have changed their culture of safety," Tom Butt said at the time.
The fire was not an isolated incident. In fact, Chevron has a long and troubled history in Richmond where "some of the company's worst sins have taken place," says Good Jobs First, nonprofit research group promoting corporate and government accountability. The Chevron rap sheet includes a 1989 refinery fire that left three workers severely burned, a $540,000 fine imposed by EPA for polluting the San Pablo Bay, and attempts to bypass monitoring equipment and release pollutants into the air that drew a federal investigation in 2012.
In the 1990s Chevron had a desk in the city managers office. For a long time, Richmond City Council members, colloquially known as "The Chevron Five," consistently voted for Big Oil interests. The era of corporate deference came to an end in 2008 when three of them were voted out of office, and progressives gained control of City Hall. Since then, and in the wake of Citizens United, the company has ramped up its efforts to hand pick rubber stamp politicians.
In 2012, a political action committee calling itself Moving Forward - allegedly a "coalition of labor unions, small businesses, public safety and firefighters associations" - poured $1.2 million into the City Council elections. All the money, however, came from Chevron. This time round, the company upped the ante threefold, but to no avail as voters saw corporate spin for what it was. Incidentally, Nat Bates, whom Moving Forward endorsed for mayor, was part of the infamous Chevron quintet.
This weekend, former Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and Harriet Rowan will be on Bill Moyers & Company to discuss Chevron's assault on democracy. Check your local listings. You can also watch the show online.
- See more at: http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/11/12661/richmond-voters-beat-chevrons-corporate-coup-d-etat#sthash.V9HGcpp4.dpuf
11/14
Big Oil’s influence on corporate media has American news outlets shamefully shirking climate coverage. But oil companies won’t be satisfied by merely controlling the national news. In the poor Californian city of Richmond, where Chevron wants to upgrade a polluting refinery that is wont to explode, the oil giant has started an online newspaper.
The *Richmond Standard* is a hyperlocal journalism site launched in January with the hallmarks of a typical Patch site (before said service was dumped by AOL): minimally reported stories about local crime, public meetings, and sports, told with the inverted-pyramid style of traditional news writing.
But the Standard is not your typical, well-intentioned but underfunded local reporting initiative; it’s a Chevron propaganda rag that’s run and written by the company’s flacks. *The San Francisco Chronicle* delves into the ethics of such an initiative:
The idea of the nation’s second-largest oil company funding a local news site harkens back to an era of journalism when business magnates often owned newspapers to promote their personal financial or political agendas. Now that mainstream newspapers are struggling to survive, online news sites are testing ways to fund their operations, said Edward Wasserman, dean of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
But the idea of a company sponsoring news in a community where it operates still poses problems, he said.
“The tradition of press independence — even though in many times it’s more aspirational than real — is nevertheless a cornerstone principle,” Wasserman said. The Standard “is a different model. It’s clearly meant as a community outreach effort, so it’s born in an ethically challenged area.”
The Standard claims to be Richmond’s first “community-driven daily news source” since prior to 1990, yet Wasserman’s school runs Richmond Confidential — a rival site that frequently covers Chevron. The Standard has a “Chevron speaks” section, which has so far been used to introduce the website (which it says could “blaze the trail for a new model of corporate-sponsored, community-generated news”), and to criticize negative press coverage of its plans to upgrade the refinery. But the positive coverage of Chevron and its refinery also spills into the “News” section.
Chevron’s San Francisco-based PR consultants poached colorful crime reporter Mike Aldax away from the San Francisco Examiner late last year, hiring him to work as an account manager and to write Richmond Standard’s articles. A Chevron spokesperson described the writer as “independent,” but a recent tweet reminds us that Aldax’s loyalties lie with his client:
“Richmond residents are not going to be fooled — they know where we’re coming from,” Aldax said. “The onus is on me to provide information that’s factual and accurate.”
Note that Aldax doesn’t say anything about “balance.” As theChronicle points out, Aldax didn’t quote activists who oppose the refinery upgrade in a recent story about the project’s “robust” environmental impact report.
Perhaps we can look forward to more such ventures in other communities where Chevron operates. The *Ecuador Standard*, anyone?
Source:
New Chevron website covers Richmond news, San Francisco Chronicle
==
11/14
chevron, green party , ej, foreclosures
==
http://www.globalpossibilities.org/how-to-buy-a-city-chevron-spends-3-million-on-local-california-election-to-oust-refinery-critics-3/
How to Buy a City: Chevron Spends $3 Million on Local California Election to Oust Refinery Critics
Nov 1, 2014 Posted by Casey Coates Danson
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By Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, Democracy Now! | Video Interview
Also see: Chevron’s “Company Town” Fights Back: An Interview With Gayle McLaughlin
The oil giant Chevron is being accused of attempting to buy the city government of Richmond, California. The company has spent more than $3 million to back a slate of pro-Chevron candidates for mayor and city council ahead of Tuesday’s election. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, Chevron has paid for TV attack ads, purchased space on virtually every billboard in town, funded a flood of mailers and financed a fake “news” website run by a Chevron employee. The move comes two years after a massive fire at Chevron’s oil refinery in Richmond sent 15,000 residents to the hospital. It was the third refinery fire since 1989 in the city. The city of Richmond responded to the latest fire by suing Chevron, accusing officials of placing profits and executive pay over public safety. We speak to one of the politicians being targeted, outgoing Mayor Gayle McLaughlin. She was elected mayor of Richmond in 2006, becoming the first Green Party official to represent a city of more than 100,000. Due to mayoral term limits, McLaughlin is now running for Richmond City Council.
TRANSCRIPT:
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We turn now to Richmond, California, where the oil giant Chevron is being accused of attempting to buy the city government. The company has spent more than $3 million to back a slate of pro-Chevron candidates for mayor and city council ahead of Tuesday’s election. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, Chevron has paid for TV attack ads, purchased space on virtually every billboard in town, funded a flood of mailers, and financed a fake news website run by a Chevron employee.
The move comes two years after a massive fire at Chevron’s oil refinery in Richmond sent 15,000 residents to the hospital. It was the third refinery fire since 1989 in that city. The city of Richmond responded to the latest fire by suing Chevron, accusing officials of placing profits and executive pay over public safety. Now Chevron is attempting to defeat some of its critics in city government. Here is one recent political ad paid for by Chevron.
CHEVRON’S MOVING FORWARD AD: It seems like whenever Richmond faces a tough problem, Mayor Gayle McLaughlin packs her suitcase and flies away. When Richmond needed someone to fight crime, Gayle flew away to Ecuador. When Richmond needed someone to fix crumbling public housing, Gayle flew away to Cuba. When Richmond needed someone to attract new businesses and jobs, Gayle flew away to D.C. to try to free convicted foreign spies. Mayor Gayle McLaughlin ran away when we needed her the most. Why would we elect her to City Council?
AMY GOODMAN: An ad by Chevron’s campaign committee, Moving Forward, targeting Gayle McLaughlin. In 2006, she was elected mayor of Richmond, becoming the first Green Party official to represent a city of more than 100,000. She is now running for City Council. She was not allowed to run for a third term as mayor due to term limits. Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin now joins us from San Francisco.
Welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you please explain this for a global audience that might not understand what is going on in Richmond right now, the extent to which Chevron is a player in your municipal elections?
MAYOR GAYLE McLAUGHLIN: Thank you, Amy. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Yes, what’s happening in Richmond now is that we have made remarkable—a remarkable transformation over the past 10 years since I’ve been in office, with other progressive electives and a progressive community. Previous to that, over the past hundred years, we were known as acompany town,with Chevron having control of the City Council, having the City Council bought out, in their pockets. We had among the highest rates in the nation of violence. We were known for widespread corruption. You know, Richmond had the refinery, with a situation of allowing it to continue to pollute, without the refinery paying its fair share of taxes, without hiring locally, without upgrading the refinery in a responsible way in terms of having safety for our residents. In fact, they have thousands of clamps holding corroded pipes together. And that’s what led to the fire of 2012.
But at a certain point, in 2003—
AMY GOODMAN: And the fire and the extent of the damage caused by the fire?
MAYOR GAYLE McLAUGHLIN: —we formed a progressive alliance, and that RPA, Richmond Progressive Alliance, ran people for elected office. We won five local elections, including my mayoral seat. And we set about making the people’s priorities the focus of our work as elected officials.
And that has led to many, many gains. We won a $114 million tax settlement with Chevron. We’ve renovated our parks, many, many urban renewal projects. And we’ve reduced our crime dramatically, a 70 percent reduction in homicides. We are continuing to put forward sustainable projects—number one in the Bay Area for solar installed per capita. So, we’re spiraling up and reversing that downward spiral. And Chevron feels very threatened by that. They want to stop us as progressives. They want to continue and get and regain the City Council in their pockets. And so, we’re standing tall and making it clear that we’re a community that defines its own destiny and will continue to do so.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Mayor McLaughlin, I want to read from a statement Chevron made to MSNBC in response to reports of it spending $3 million in local elections this year. Quote, “The amount of money we spend to inform voters must be viewed in the context of the more than $500 million in local taxes, social investment and spending on local vendors from Chevron over the past five years, and our $90 million social and environmental commitment to the city that will follow once our $1 billion refinery modernization is allowed to proceed.” Your response?
MAYOR GAYLE McLAUGHLIN: Yes, you know, yeah, sure, Chevron does some good things in the city of Richmond, but it comes at a price. First and foremost, they require all the money that they give to nonprofits to come with this requirement that these nonprofits utilize Chevron’s logo in their press releases, and they have press conferences where Chevron gets to do its PR campaign. So it comes at a price. Yes, we think those are good projects that they have contributed to, but it is no excuse for one domineering company to try and buy a city’s election.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what about the fire that led to your council and your government seeking redress from Chevron? Could you talk about the impact on your community?
MAYOR GAYLE McLAUGHLIN: Yes, the 2012 horrific fire caused great damage to our community. It was a situation where 15,000 people went to local hospitals for respiratory ailments. We had damages to our local economy in terms of our property values were lowered, and there was a slowdown in attraction of new businesses to Richmond. So we feel that there was, you know, a huge trauma and a huge impact on the health and the economic future of Richmond.
So we are taking them to court. We have a lawsuit. It’s the first-ever lawsuit that the city of Richmond has waged against Chevron. And we think we deserve a City Council that will stand strong and not drop this lawsuit. If Chevron-friendly candidates get into the City Council, we fear that’s exactly what will happen, the lawsuit will be dropped, or a very weak settlement will come about. We want to stand strong and get the kind of compensation that the community deserves. And we want to make it clear that Chevron’s corporate culture must change, that they must put the health and well-being of our community before their corporate profits.
AMY GOODMAN: Mayor, can you talk about the Richmond Standard website, which describes itself as a home of, quote, “community-driven news,” but it is actually funded entirely by Chevron?
MAYOR GAYLE McLAUGHLIN: Yes, the Richmond Standard website tries to promote itself as a news website, but in fact it’s a public relations—Chevron public relations website. All the articles in there are Chevron-friendly articles. They’re articles that promote Chevron’s agenda. It is not anywhere near even a mainstream news service that pretends to be somewhat neutral. It is clearly a Chevron PR website.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you very much for being with us. One of the tabs says “Chevron Speaks” on that website. Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, mayor of Richmond, the Green mayor of the—she is the mayor of the largest—it’s the largest city, Richmond, to have a Green mayor. Her term is ending. She’s term-limited out, and she’s now running for the Richmond City Council. We’re going to continue with Green Party politics in a moment here in New York. Stay with us.
==
3/14
The Stone That Brings Down Goliath?
Richmond and Eminent Domain
by ELLEN BROWN
In a nearly $13 billion settlement with the US Justice Department in November 2013, JPMorganChase admitted that it, along with every other large US bank, had engaged in mortgage fraud as a routine business practice, sowing the seeds of the mortgage meltdown.JPMorgan and other megabanks have now been caught in over a dozen major frauds, including LIBOR-rigging and bid-rigging; yet no prominent banker has gone to jail.Meanwhile, nearly a quarter of all mortgages nationally remain underwater (meaning the balance owed exceeds the current value of the home), sapping homeowners’ budgets, the housing market and the economy. Since the banks, the courts and the federal government have failed to give adequate relief to homeowners, some cities are taking matters into their own hands.
Gayle McLaughlin, the bold mayor of Richmond, California, has gone where no woman dared go before, threatening to take underwater mortgages by eminent domain from Wall Street banks and renegotiate them on behalf of beleaguered homeowners.A member of the Green Party,which takes no corporate campaign money, she proved her mettle standing up to Chevron, which dominates the Richmond landscape. But the banks have signaled that if Richmond or another city tries the eminent domain gambit, they will rush to court seeking an injunction. Their grounds: an unconstitutional taking of private propertyand breach of contract.
How to refute those charges? There is a way; but to understand it, you first need to grasp the massive fraud perpetrated on homeowners. It is how you were duped into paying more than your house was worth; why you should not just turn in your keys or short-sell your underwater property away; why you should urge Congress not to legalize the MERS scheme; and why you should insist that your local government help you acquire title to your home at a fair price if the banks won’t. That is exactly what Richmond and other city councils are attempting to do through the tool of eminent domain.
The Securitization Fraud That Collapsed the Housing Market
One settlement after another has now been reached with investors and government agencies for the sale of “faulty mortgage bonds,”including a suit brought by Fannie and Freddie that settled in October 2013 for $5.1 billion. “Faulty” is a euphemism for “fraudulent.” It means that mortgages subject to securitization have “clouded” or “defective” titles. And that means the
banks and real estate trusts claiming title as owners or nominees don’t actually have title – or have standing to enjoin the city from proceeding with eminent domain. They can’t claim an unconstitutional taking of property because they can’t prove they own the property, and they can’t claim breach of contract because they weren’t the real parties in interest to the mortgages (the parties putting up the money).
“Securitization” involves bundling mortgages into a pool, selling them to a non-bank vehicle called a “real estate trust,” and then selling “securities” (bonds) to investors (called “mortgage-backed securities” or “collateralized debt obligations”). By 2007, 75% of all mortgage originations were securitized. According to investment banker and financial analyst Christopher Whalen, the purpose of securitization was to allow banks to avoid capitalization requirements, enabling them to borrow at unregulated levels.
Since the real estate trusts were “off-balance sheet,” they did not count in the banks’ capital requirements. But under applicable accounting rules, that was true only if they were “true sales.” According to Whalen, “most of the securitizations done by banks over the past two decades were in fact secured borrowings, not true sales, and thus potential frauds on insured depositories.” He concludes, “bank abuses of non-bank vehicles to pretend to sell assets and thereby lower required capital levels was a major cause of the subprime financial crisis.”
In 1997, the FDIC gave the banks a pass on these disguised borrowings by granting them “safe harbor” status. This proved to be a colossal mistake, which led to the implosion of the housing market and the economy at large. Safe harbor status was finally withdrawn in 2011; but in the meantime, “financings” were disguised as “true sales,” permitting banks to grossly over-borrow and over-leverage. Over-leveraging allowed credit to be pumped up to bubble levels, driving up home prices. When the bubble collapsed, homeowners had to pick up the tab by paying on mortgages that far exceeded the market value of their homes. According to Whalen:
[T]he largest commercial banks became “too big to fail” in large part because they used non-bank vehicles to increase leverage without disclosure or capital backing. . . .
The failure of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and most notably Citigroup all were largely attributable to deliberate acts of securities fraud whereby assets were “sold” to investors via non-bank financial vehicles. These transactions were styled as “sales” in an effort to meet applicable accounting rules, but were in fact bank frauds that must, by GAAP and law applicable to non-banks since 1997, be reported as secured borrowings. Under legal tests stretching from 16th Century UK law to the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act of the 1980s, virtually none of the mortgage backed securities deals of the 2000s met the test of a true sale.
. . . When the crisis hit, it suddenly became clear that the banks’ capital was insufficient.
Today . . . hundreds of billions in claims against banks arising from these purported “sales” of assets remain pending before the courts.
Eminent Domain as a Negotiating Tool
Investors can afford high-powered attorneys to bring investor class actions, but underwater and defaulting homeowners usually cannot; and that is where local government comes in. Eminent domain is a way to bring banks and investors to the bargaining table.
Professor Robert Hockett of Cornell University Law School is the author of the plan to use eminent domain to take underwater loans and write them down for homeowners. He writes on NewYorkFed.org:
[In] the case of privately securitized mortgages, [principal] write-downs are almost impossible to carry out, since loan modifications on the scale necessitated by the housing market crash would require collective action by a multitude of geographically dispersed security holders. The solution . . . Is for state and municipal governments to use their eminent domain powers to buy up and restructure underwater mortgages, thereby sidestepping the need to coordinate action across large numbers of security holders.
The problem is blowback from the banks, but it can be blocked by requiring them to prove title to the properties. Securities are governed by federal law, but real estate law is the domain of the states. Counties have a mandate to maintain clean title records; and legally, clean title requires a chain of “wet” signatures, from A to B to C to D. If the chain is broken, title is clouded. Properties for which title cannot be established escheat (or revert) to the state by law, allowing the government to start fresh with clean title.
New York State law governs most of the trusts involved in securitization. Under it, transfers of mortgages into a trust after the cutoff date specified in the Pooling and Servicing Agreement (PSA) governing the trust are void.
For obscure reasons, the REMICs (Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduits) claiming to own the properties routinely received them after the closing date specified in the PSAs. The late transfers were done throu gh the fraudulent signatures-after-the-fact called “robo-signing,” which occurred so regularly that they were the basis of a $25 billion settlement between a coalition of state attorneys general and the five biggest mortgage servicers in February 2012. (Why all the robo-signing? Good question. See my earlier article here.)
homeowners from raising the late transfers into the trust as a defense to foreclosure, because the homeowners were not parties to the PSAs. But in August 2013, inGlaski v. Bank of America, N.A., 218 Cal. App. 4th 1079 (July 31, 2013), a California appellate court ruled that the question whether the loan ever made it into the asset pool could be raised in determining the proper party to initiate foreclosure. And whether or not the homeowner was a party to the PSA, the city and county have a clear legal interest in seeing that the PSA’s terms were complied with, since the job of the county recorder is to maintain records establishing clean title.
Before the rise of mortgage securitization, any transfer of a note and deed needed to be recorded as a public record, to give notice of ownership and establish a “priority of liens.” With securitization, a private database called MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems) circumvented this procedure by keeping the deeds as “nominee for the beneficiary,” obscuring the property’s legal owner and avoiding the expense of recording the transfer (usually about $30 each). Estimates are that untraceable property assignments concealed behind MERS may have cost counties nationwide billions of dollars in recording fees. (See my earlier article here.)
Counties thus have not only a fiduciary but a financial interest in establishing clean title to the properties in their jurisdictions. If no one can establish title, the properties escheat and can be claimed free and clear. Eminent domain can be a powerful tool for negotiating loan modifications on underwater mortgages; and if the banks cannot prove title, they have no standing to complain.
The End of “Too Big to Fail”?
Richmond’s city council is only one vote short of the supermajority needed to pursue the eminent domain plan, and it is seeking partners in a Joint Powers Authority that will make the push much stronger. Grassroots efforts to pursue eminent domain are also underway in a number of other cities around the country. If Richmond pulls it off successfully, others will rush to follow.
The result could be costly for some very large banks, but they have brought it on themselves with shady dealings. Christopher Whalen predicts that the FDIC’s withdrawal of “safe harbor” status for the securitization model may herald the end of “too big to fail” for those banks, which will no longer have the power to grossly over-leverage and may have to keep their loans on their books.
Wall Street banks are deemed “too big to fail” only because there is no viable alternative – but there could be. Local governments could form their own publicly-owned banks, on the model of the state-owned Bank of North Dakota. They could then put their revenues, their savings, and their newly-acquired real estate into those public utilities, to be used to generate interest-free credit for the local government (since it would own the bank) and low-cost credit for the local community. For more on this promising option, which has been or is being explored in almost half the state legislatures in the US, see here.
Ellen Brown is an attorney, president of the Public Banking Institute, and a candidate for California State Treasurer running on a state bank platform. She is the author of twelve books including the best-selling Web of Debt and her latest book, The Public Bank Solution, which explores successful public banking models historically and globally.
==
wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gayle_McLaughlin
Gayle McLaughlin (born 1952 in Chicago, Illinois) is a California politician. She is a member of the Green Party and, since 2006, the mayor of Richmond, California. McLaughlin was elected on November 7, 2006 by a 242-vote[1] margin over incumbent mayor Irma A. Anderson.[2] Richmond is, as of 2009, the largest city in the country with a Green Party mayor.[3]
McLaughlin is a social activist who has participated in the peace, social justice, civil rights, and environmental movements. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree inpsychology, with graduate study in psychology and education.
She was first elected to the City Council in 2004, winning one of five open seats, with 11,191 votes or 10% in 2004.[4] She has lived in Richmond since 2001.[5]
Contents
- 1 Background and experience
- 2 Richmond City Council and Richmond Progressive Alliance
- 3 Mayor of Richmond
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McLaughlin was born into a working class union family. She is the middle child of five daughters born to a unionized carpenter and a housewife.
During the 1980s, McLaughlin was an activist with the Central American solidarity movement and a steering committee member of CISPES (Committee In Solidarity with the People of El Salvador). She also played an active role in the North Star Network, a national networking effort to unite progressives, and in coalition-building efforts with Rainbow/PUSH.
McLaughlin graduated summa cum laude from Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts. She continued her education with two years of graduate study in psychology at Rhode Island College, with additional graduate study in education at U.C. Berkeley Extension.
McLaughlin has worked as a postal clerk, teacher, caregiver for the elderly, and tutor/clinician for children with learning disabilities. She has also worked in the capacity of support staff for various not-for-profit health and educational organizations.[6]
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On November 2, 2004, McLaughlin was elected to the city council of Richmond, California, in a non partisan race. She is a founder of the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA), a non-partisan progressive group in western Contra Costa County, composed of members of the Green Party, Democratic Party, Peace and Freedom Party and Independents.
In Richmond, McLaughlin's activism has found her involved in many local struggles in support of both social and environmental justice. She opposed the Patriot Act, the criminalization of the homeless, and Chevron's Richmond Refinery tax perks. She has also been involved in an ongoing effort to stop development on the North Richmond shoreline and supports the battle against job or salary cutbacks against Service Employees International Union
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In the 2004 election McLaughlin was the first Green Party candidate ever to win a seat on Richmond California's City Council. In 2006, she decided to challenge incumbent mayor Irma Anderson, whom she defeated by 242 votes.
Mayor McLaughlin is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition,[7] an organization formed in 2006 and co-chaired by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston mayor Thomas Menino.
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McLaughlin won a second term in office in the 2010 municipal election.[8] She overcame a well funded offensive by local police and firefighter unions to unseat her during the election campaign. She was sworn into office on January 11, 2011 to her second term.
McLaughlin was criticized for attending an Occupy rally on Veterans Day of 2011 instead of a symbolic ship-launching portrayal at the former Richmond Shipyards.[9] McLaughlin stated she was a supporter ofVeterans for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War.[10]
McLaughlin is a strong proponent of a plan being pioneered by the city of Richmond to use eminent domain to purchase "underwater" properties whose values have fallen below the amount of the mortgage owed. According to the plan, the city, in partnership with a private company, would purchase or use eminent domain to seize loans on properties in danger of being foreclosed at amounts reflecting current prices. The mortgage payable by the owner of the property would then be reduced. A number of banks have filed lawsuits against the proposal, arguing that it is an illegal use of eminent domain. Critics states that this plan would severely damage the mortgage industry. However, other cities such as Newark, New Jersey, North Las Vegas, and Seattle are considering adopting similar plans to alleviate the foreclosure crisis.[11]
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Source:{:(style="margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px"):}:[edit:{]}:
- RichmondProgressiveAlliance.net "Asleep at the Wheel in Richmond", Chip Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle (July 12, 2004)
References:{:(style="margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px"):}:[edit:{]}:
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ KESQ.com Palm Springs, Coachella Valley - Weather, News, Sports: Our Apologies
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ Green Party likely to win in Richmond mayor's race
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ Mayor Anderson concedes race
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ She was elected to her first term as mayor in November of 2006 and was relected in November of 2010. Election Results
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ City of Richmond website, Gayle McLaughlin profile, retrieved May 27, 2006
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ Mayor Gayle McLaughlin website, Gayle McLaughlin's official site, retrieved October 9, 2012
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ "Mayors Against Illegal Guns: Coalition Members".
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ "Results of 2010 midterm elections are mixed bag for Mayor Bloomberg". New York Daily News. 2010-11-07. Retrieved 2013-03-27.
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ "California Mayor Snubs Veterans to Attend Occupy Rally". Fox News Channel. Retrieved 16 May 2013.
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ Dreier, Hannah. "Richmond Mayor to skip Veterans Day events for Occupy rally". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved 16 May 2013.
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ Paul Elias (August 25, 2013). "Desperate Calif. city looks to use 'eminent domain' to seize loans to ease homeowners burden". Star Tribune.
External links:{:(style="margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px"):}:[edit:{]}:
- GayleMcLaughlin.net - Official website
- ContraCostaTimes.com - 'Council Pool Not Deep' (editorial), Contra Costa Times (October 27, 2006)
- RichmondGreens.net - 'Many Neighborhoods - One Richmond', Richmond Greens
- Editorial by McLaughlin on Curbing violence
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Investors withdraw appeals against California eminent domain plan
Fri, May 16 2014
By Sam Forgione
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pacific Investment Management Co,BlackRock Incand DoubleLine Capital LP and other investors on Friday withdrew appeals of a ruling that had dismissed their lawsuits to block a California city's plan to seize mortgages and keep delinquent borrowers in their homes.
In a filing in the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco, lawyers for mortgage-bond trustees moved to end appeals in two related cases.
The move was made because the plan, based on a legal process called eminent domain to seize private property for a public purpose, had not materialized, said John Ertman, partner at law firm Ropes & Gray, which representing mortgage trusteesWells Fargo and Deutsche Bank.
But the lawsuit would be "immediately re-filed" if the city of Richmond, California, took steps toward adopting the plan,he said.
The trustees sued Richmond last year over the plan aimed at keeping local residents who owed more than their properties were worth in their homes.
The other trustees are Bank of New York Mellon, U.S. Bank, and Wilmington Trust.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled last September that the original case was premature, and that ruling was appealed roughly a month later. Friday's withdrawal was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco.
"We continue to believe that using eminent domain to seize mortgage loans is unconstitutional, and harmful to homeowners and ordinary savers with a pension, 401(k) or IRA," Ertman said.
He said the trustees were dismissing the appeal since Richmond had not progressed toward seizing loans since Judge Breyer's ruling and the filing of their appeal seven months ago.
San Francisco-based private investment firm Mortgage Resolution Partners (MRP) crafted the eminent domain plan for Richmond. The investor group had said that if the city of Richmond was allowed to go ahead with its plan, it may result in steeper down payment requirements and higher interest rates.
(Reporting by Sam Forgione; Editing by Andrew Hay)
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