RICHMOND—Today CALPIRG, the statewide public interest advocacy
organization, released a new report that quantifies the lobbying
expenditures and campaign contributions by the oil industry and reveals
a sharp increase in dollars spent to defeat efforts to decrease
California’s dependence on oil over the last two years.
The report, Slick Politics: How the oil industry has spent millions to keep California dependent on oil,
found that the oil industry has spent more than $17 million since the
beginning of 2005 on lobbying expenditures and campaign contributions
to candidates and political parties, not including their contributions
to ballot initiative campaigns.
“The
oil industry spends millions every year to derail efforts to reduce our
dependence on oil,” said Emily Rusch, Policy Advocate for CALPIRG
Education Fund. “As a result of our growing oil use, we suffer the
consequences of increasing foreign oil dependence, high gas prices, and
global warming.”
Among the findings of the report:
-
Major oil companies and oil industry associations spent a reported
$12,160,954 on lobbying expenses during the 2005-2006 legislative
session, more than double their reported lobbying expenditures of $5,873,096 in the 1999-2000 legislative session.
-
Oil companies and major oil company executives have given at least
$5,275,957 in campaign contributions to candidates and political
parties since the beginning of 2005, excluding their giving to ballot
initiative campaigns.
-
One company, Chevron, reports lobbying on 106 bills in the last
legislative session. Among the bills that the oil companies
successfully worked to defeat were SB 757 (Kehoe), the Oil
Conservation, Efficiency, and Alternative Fuels Act, and AB 1012
(Nation), Foreign Oil Independence Act of 2006.
“With
the statewide election just days away, now is a good opportunity to
reflect on the oil industry’s influence over the past two years and
look to the future. We urge California’s new leadership to ignore oil
industry spending in politics and adopt meaningful reforms to reduce
our oil dependence,” said Rusch.
