Author: julialdionne

California is at a crossroads.

Last legislative session, state legislators passed critical policies to curb emissions and protect Californians from pollution. But there’s still work to do to keep California a global climate leader. We need to close loopholes allowing corporations to greenwash and the state to invest in dirty energy. 

This legislative session, California has an opportunity to hold the oil and gas industry and other polluters accountable for their climate impacts. Right now, state legislators are considering a climate package that would:

• Require big corporations to track and fully report on their emissions. This is a major step toward combating corporate greenwashing.
• Put an end to California investing billions of teacher and state employee retirement dollars in oil and gas companies, stopping the state’s contradictory policy of being a climate leader while simultaneously investing in fossil fuel corporations.
• Require large companies to prepare climate-related financial risk reports, enabling individuals to make informed decisions about their investments and support companies that are taking climate action.

We can’t allow the fossil fuel industry to continue to mislead and manipulate Californians. We deserve to know how much large corporations are contributing to climate change and for the state to stop empowering the fossil fuel industry through investments. 

It’s time for legislators to pick a side— corporate greed or California’s climate future. 

 

With a bureaucratic name and departments filled with engineers and scientists, the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) tends to fly below the radar, but make no mistake, it plays a critical role in California’s effort to fight climate change, reduce air pollution and protect the health of overburdened communities living at the fence lines of Southern California’s biggest polluters. 

 On December 2, 2022, SCAQMD will finalize its 2022 Air Quality Management Plan (AQMP), and without dramatic improvements, the agency will miss the mark and come up short of addressing the magnitude of our air quality crisis. For too long, oil and gas industry lobbying has succeeded in creating special carve-outs for the industry at the expense of the health of Californians. 

By staff’s own estimates, to meet federal air quality standards, the region must reduce nitrous oxide (NOx) emissions by 83 percent. There is an urgent need to adopt zero emission technologies across all sectors and reduce the pollution impacts of diesel trucks pouring into the region that serves growing distribution and warehouse businesses in the Inland Empire and at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. 

Tell SCAQMD to stand up to oil and gas interests and approve a strong clean air plan that protects public health and the environment

SCAQMD is responsible for the air quality of a 6,700-square-mile basin spanning Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, and Orange counties. It regulates emissions from major polluters, like power plants and oil refineries and coordinates its efforts with the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which regulates cars and trucks, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which oversees interstate and international travel and commerce. Since 1979, SCAQMD has been out of compliance with all federal clean air standards for ozone, commonly known as smog. 

Southern California has the worst ozone pollution in the country, according to the American Lung Association’s 2022 State of the Air Report, and this year, the South Coast Air Basin had over 100 bad air days for ozone. 

Industry lobbyists are fighting to undermine the adoption of zero-emissions technologies like electric vehicles, and instead promoting carve outs for natural gas and continuing dependence on fossil fuels. There is nothing “clean” about natural gas, and the analysis of the climate impacts associated with natural gas at all stages of development — from drilling and processing to transporting and combusting — just keeps getting worse. Methane (the main component of natural gas) is 84 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide in the short term. Leaks, venting and flaring of natural gas are also responsible for a range of other public health and pollution issues. Oil and gas supply chain methane emissions were 16 million metric tons in 2019, enough wasted gas to fuel 10 million homes, and adding natural gas vehicles to California roads will contribute to the state’s ozone and climate problems.

The California Natural Gas Vehicles Coalition is working to create a new definition of “near-zero emission” vehicles to delay the state’s transition to a zero-emission economy. The carve-out at SCAQMD is part of a broader, coordinated industry effort led by SoCalGas and others to repackage natural gas as a clean alternative and maintain robust markets for fossil fuels despite the need to reduce emissions to tackle ozone pollution and climate change. 

 Last year, Los Angeles and Long Beach officials considered a new policy to require zero-pollution electric trucks to replace diesel trucks at their ports, and decided to allow “near-zero emission” trucks (defined as natural gas trucks) after public testimony from local residents promoting the “near-zero” options. An investigation after the decision revealed that the residents had been paid to testify by a firm hired by the natural gas industry. One resident who was told she was part of “environmental campaign” grew suspicious after she “was paid to hand out pamphlets featuring the logo of the nation’s largest gas utility, Southern California Gas Company, which is often referred to as SoCalGas.”

SoCalGas was recently fined close to $10 million by the California Public Utilities Commission for misusing consumer money to undermine the state’s climate goals. And despite a shift in corporate rhetoric around climate, the company still plans to rely on methane-intensive natural gas for 80 percent of its energy in 2045.

It is time for SCAQMD to deliver on its critical mission to protect Californians from the health and climate impacts of air pollution, develop a strong Air Plan, and commit to doing its part to help the state achieve a zero-emission economy and reject oil and gas industry influence meant to keep our state tied to burning fossil fuels.

The Climate Accountability Campaign is committed to daylight how the oil and gas industry is contributing to a rigged system in Sacramento and delaying real action by trying to create special deals for themselves.

 

 

(SACRAMENTO, CA) The California Climate Accountability Project (CCAP) is shining a light on legislators who say they support climate action but have accepted tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry and then failed to support important climate legislation. CCAP launched a statewide advertising campaign today that connects the dots between fossil fuel donations; their agenda to oppose California’s transition to clean energy, buildings, and transportation; and the legislators helping them rig the system in Sacramento.

CCAP released digital ads featuring six California legislators tracking their contributions from oil and gas interests like Chevron, Sempra Energy, and the Western States Petroleum Association:

• State Senator Steve Glazer
• State Senator Bob Hertzberg
• Assemblymember Blanca Rubio
• State Senator Susan Rubio
• Assemblymember Tim Grayson
• Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva

The ads also highlight how these legislators failed to support key bills like AB1395, The Climate Crisis Act, and AB345, which would have created oil drilling buffers for homes and schools.

Diverse statewide and in-district advertising strategies will be employed featuring additional legislators as the campaign moves forward.

“Legislators will have to pick a side,” said Mike Young, political director of California Environmental Voters. “California is contaminated by oil and gas money, and the industry’s influence is stalling climate action and the transition to a clean energy future that the public demands.”

The CCAP campaign is illuminating the pervasive reach of campaign money from fossil fuel companies, even amongst legislators who claim to support climate action. Despite a pledge by the California Democratic Party to refuse to accept campaign contributions from oil and gas interests, 52 percent  of all Democratic Assemblymembers and State Senators took contributions from fossil fuel companies and utilities. CalMatters reports oil companies poured more than $19 million into California political races in the 2017-18 cycle alone in direct campaign contributions and independent expenditure campaigns.

Oil and gas industry lobbyists spend millions more lobbying regulators and state legislators to oppose policy and regulations that would build out renewable energy from clean sources like solar and wind, improve California’s electric vehicle infrastructure, deploy non-polluting electric trucks, and transition California’s buildings to be powered by zero-emissions energy.

“It’s unacceptable that the same oil and gas companies reaping record profits are lobbying our legislature and regulators for special deals and subsidies for industry schemes like carbon capture,” said David Diaz, Executive Director, Active San Gabriel Valley, El Monte (Tongva Territory). “Make no mistake, the fossil fuel industry has a robust agenda to delay and reverse real climate solutions. We need a climate plan that works for Californians, not big polluters.”

Despite Californians’ strong public support for climate action and clean energy solutions and a history of enacting landmark climate policy, the fossil fuel industry’s campaign and lobby investments have been paying off with weakened and stalled climate action.

“For too long, corporate polluters and the legislators beholden to them have avoided scrutiny. That’s about to change,” said Mike Young, political director of California Environmental Voters. “It’s time for our legislators to stand up for the health and future of all Californians, rather than working behind the scenes to protect corporate profits.”

California’s legislators and regulators are currently considering dozens of bills and new regulations that could bolster the state’s climate ambitions, and each will come with a fight against the oil and gas industry’s agenda. CCAP will continue to call attention to the industry’s influence in Sacramento.

It’s easy to overlook the power that gas and oil has over legislators and regulators as their lobbyists confuse the issue about clean energy and chip away at policies out of public view. But when you try to understand why California’s climate policies have stalled, it’s clear that the industry’s opposition is significant, that their advocacy efforts amount to an agenda to keep California burning more fossil fuels, and that our leaders are listening to them.

Gas and oil industry interests have weakened California’s clean energy and climate policies by using a rigged state political system to push decision-makers to carve out special deals so they can keep profiting. Oil and gas industry lobbyists have spent millions of dollars lobbying regulators and state legislators to oppose policy and regulation that would build out renewable energy from clean sources like solar and wind, improve California’s electric vehicle infrastructure, deploy non-polluting electric trucks, and transition our buildings to be powered by zero-emissions energy. That’s on top of the millions they have made in campaign contributions and independent expenditures on behalf of lawmakers in recent elections. If they continue to succeed, consumers will pay more and Californians will be left with more fires, extreme heat, and worsened drought.

The industry’s agenda

Use expensive fossil fuel alternatives instead of renewables

California should be on a path to transform the electricity grid to run on renewable energy. In 2018, California passed S.B. 100, a landmark bill requiring the state to transition the grid to be powered by 100% clean energy by 2045, and there’s growing consensus that California can and should move up this target to 2035. The state is also rapidly scaling its procurement of clean energy from wind and solar. In early 2020 the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved a plan requiring the state to procure nearly 24 GW of new renewables and more than 12 GW of new batteries by 2032. State residents are seeing the benefits:

• 484,980 Californians were employed in the clean energy sector in 2020, five times as many workers as the oil and gas industry 
• Jobs in the clean energy sector are high quality; wages are 29 percent higher than the statewide median wage
• California would save 68,332 lives by switching to clean energy

The oil and gas industry sees the writing on the wall and is doing everything in its power to delay the transition to electricity powered by renewables so that they can keep profiting. They’ve lobbied against legislation that would increase the use of renewables in the state and against legislation that would include renewables as preferred sources in California’s grid planning process. They’ve also pushing for exorbitantly expensive fuels like gas from agriculture to lock in reliance on the gas system.

• In 2015, WSPA opposed S.B. 350 which would increase California’s share of electricity from renewable sources to 50 percent 
• In 2021, SoCalGas announced plans to source five percent of the gas it sells from “renewable natural gas” by 2022 and 20 percent by 2030, and publicly stated that they will have gas in their portfolio in 2045 
• In 2022, SoCalGas lobbied against S.B. 423, which listed renewable energy and zero-emissions resources as preferred sources in California’s energy procurement and planning efforts

Prevent clean energy from powering buildings

Buildings are one of the most deadly sources of air pollution in the United States, and new research has found that exposure to indoor air pollution accounted for 28,200 premature deaths in 2018. Powering California’s buildings with clean energy will safeguard California’s climate, improve air quality, and grow the economy, and the state is already moving in this direction. In California, 54 cities have passed policies requiring new homes and buildings be built with non-polluting appliances, and in 2021, the state approved a first-in-the-nation building code that includes electricity as the fuel of choice for new buildings.

Powering California’s buildings with clean energy: 

• Would save consumers $3.5 billion a year 
• Would save households up to $2,500 per year on energy bills 
• Would create over 100,000 jobs in California by 2045
• For the average house, replacing a gas furnace with an electric heat pump would reduce climate pollution by over 45% over the next 10 years 
• Delaying California’s transition to electric buildings is expected to result in more than $1 billion in unneeded spending on new gas connection infrastructure

Through astroturf groups and lobbying efforts, the gas industry is trying to slow California’s progress to electrify buildings and lock in harmful emissions from the building sector to protect their bottom line. 

• In 2016, SoCalGas approved an “action plan” to recruit gas industry and building industry trade groups to fight a proposal for stronger water heater efficiency standards, which it claimed would reduce the company’s revenue by $17 million. 
• In 2017, investigators found that SoCalGas improperly used customer funds to fight all-electric codes in at least five cities across California. 
• In 2021, SoCal Gas opposed S.B. 31 which would have incorporated building electrification within several parts of electric utility ratepayer funded programs, and required the California Energy Commission to fund projects deploying emissions-reduction technologies in commercial and residential buildings.

Use polluting fuels in vehicles

Ninety percent of Californians live in areas that experience unhealthy air at some point during the year, and transportation is responsible for 80 percent of California’s smog-forming emissions. Heavy-duty trucks are the largest source of smog pollution in California, emitting nearly 40 percent of the state’s diesel particulate matter. Trucks and buses make up seven percent of vehicles on the road in California, but account for 20 percent of global warming emissions from the transportation sector. 

California has made great strides to move our goods and people with non-polluting transportation technology. In 2020, California passed the first-in-the-nation Advanced Clean Trucks Rule, requiring manufacturers to produce zero-emission heavy-duty trucks starting in 2024, and in 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom released an executive order requiring 100 percent of new cars to be zero-emissions by 2035. 

• California would save more than 7,000 lives by 2050 by transitioning to electric-powered vehicles 
• Californians who drive electric vehicles can save up to $14,500 on fuel costs over 15 years
• Southern California’s electric vehicle industry has grown dramatically, creating 276,000 jobs in the state

Gas and oil executives understand that their business model is threatened by California’s transition away from polluting gas vehicles. Instead of being part of this revolution and offering real climate solutions, they’re lobbying regulators and legislators in California, setting up astroturf campaigns, and funding research to delay the state’s transition to electric transportation, slow the build out of essential electric vehicle infrastructure, prevent under resourced communities from accessing funds to purchase electric vehicles, and keep polluting gas fuels in the transportation mix.

• In 2020, the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) opposed the California Resources Board’s Advanced Clean Trucks Rule because it “sent the wrong signal to the market” 
• In 2020, WSPA opposed Gavin Newsom’s executive order requiring 100 percent of new cars to be electric vehicles by 2035 claiming California couldn’t expect the proper infrastructure and upgrades to be paid for by 2035
• In 2021, WSPA opposed S.B. 726, which required the California Air Resources Board to set a greenhouse gas reduction target for transportation as part of its 2022 Scoping Plan
• In 2021, WSPA lobbied against A.B. 1218 to codify California’s goal of 100 percent of in-state sales of new passenger vehicles and light duty trucks to be zero-emission vehicles by 2035 In 2021, WSPA commissioned a study advocating for “renewable liquid and gaseous fuels” for heavy-duty trucks 

Over the last several years, SoCalGas and the California Natural Gas Vehicle Partnership have encouraged California regulators to replace diesel trucks with natural gas trucks, despite the growing availability of zero-emissions electric trucks and evidence that natural gas truck technology degrades rapidly and, in some instances, causes them to pollute more than diesel trucks

There are more fights to come 

California’s legislators and regulators are currently considering dozens of bills and new regulations that could bolster the state’s climate ambitions, and each will likely come with a fight against the oil and gas industry’s agenda. We’ve already lost some of those fights due to the industry’s influence. S.B. 953 and S.B. 1423 presented key opportunities to combat offshore oil drilling and empower offshore renewable energy development but failed to advance to a Senate floor vote after being defeated in the Appropriations Committee. The California Senate’s Appropriations Committee also killed S.B. 1486, which would have closed Aliso Canyon, the site of the country’s largest gas leak, by 2027. 

There are still many more opportunities for legislators and regulators to push strong climate action, but we need to ensure the gas industry doesn’t act to weaken or block these policies. 

• S.B. 1010 would require 100 percent of vehicles purchased by state agencies to be zero-emission by 2027. 
• A.B. 2204 would establish the Office of Clean Energy Workforce to help provide job training to help fossil fuel workers to new jobs critical for the clean energy transition. 
• S.B. 887 would facilitate the build out of new transmission for a clean electricity grid by pushing regulators to identify key powerline projects and begin approving them. 
• Scoping Plan: The California Air Resources Board has an opportunity to accelerate climate solutions like wind and solar energy and building and transportation electrification through its Scoping Plan, a climate action blueprint that “evaluate(s) pathways” to reach carbon neutrality by 2035. 
• Advanced Clean Cars: The California Air Resources Board will vote in August 2022 on the Advanced Clean Cars standard, a rule that will achieve at least 75 percent electric vehicle sales by 2030. 
• Advanced Clean Fleets: The California Air Resources Board has an opportunity to enact a strong Advanced Clean Fleet rule which would make 100 percent of new truck sales pollution-free by 2035.

Later is too late for real climate action and clean energy.

If gas and oil executives and lobbyists get their way and are able to block and slow our transition to cleaner, more reliable, cheaper clean energy, transportation, and buildings, Californians will bear the costs. Our climate crisis will worsen, we’ll have fewer energy jobs, our air will be more polluted, and families will pay more for energy, while gas and oil executives squeeze more profit. 

Leaders need to do what huge supermajorities of Californians want – promote clean energy from solar and wind and ensure that clean energy powers our cars, homes and economy. Leaders can’t be for clean energy and industry special deals – it’s time to pick a side.

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