Advocates say signing of California trailer bills is 'devastating blow' to climate and public health

On September 19, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 237, a bill that paves the way for expanded oil drilling in Kern County, as part of a climate package at a carefully staged press conference at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

The Legislature passed the “gut and amend” bill on the previous Saturday, September 13, despite fierce opposition from a broad coalition of climate, environmental, public health, community and public interest groups.

Climate justice advocates condemned the passage of the bill as a “devastating blow to California’s climate and public health,” while Newsom described the bill package as “sweeping bipartisan reforms to California's world-leading climate policy that promise to save Californians billions of dollars on energy costs.”   

“I just signed into law the biggest electricity bill refunds in a decade — up to $60 billion to help bring down costs for California families,” Newsom claimed. “Millions of Californians will soon start saving billions on their energy costs, and the savings don’t stop there – we’re stabilizing the state’s gasoline supply to avert severe price spikes at the pump and we’re making it easier to build the abundant clean energy we need to keep bills lower.”

“On top of all that, we’re doubling down on our best tool to combat Trump’s assaults on clean air – Cap-and-Invest – by making polluters pay for projects that support our most impacted communities,” he stated. 

But the Last Chance Alliance disagreed strongly with Newsom’s contention that the signing of AB 237 and other controversial legislation in the trailer bill package would  advance climate policy in a state that has the most polluted air in the nation, according to the American Lung Association.

“In a rushed ‘gut and amend’ process crammed into the last 72 hours of the session, lawmakers allowed for the rubber-stamping of as many as 20,000 new oil wells in Kern County without input from communities and key stakeholders — leaving the very people most impacted by pollution shut out of the process,” according to a statement from the Last Chance Alliance. “SB 237 will allow these wells without any further environmental review, despite the fact that communities living near oil and gas facilities are already overburdened and facing disproportionate health impacts from drilling.” 

“Hopes for a lone bright spot in the bill related to offshore drilling were dashed when final language revealed weaker components than expected, amounting to a huge giveaway to the fossil fuel industry,” the group continued. “The bill’s offshore components are weaker than the original stand-alone bills for coastal protection in both AB 1448 and SB 542.”

On a positive note, the advocates said the legislation does clarify the need for Sable Offshore to obtain a Coastal Development Permit before beginning operations of its failed and spill-prone pipeline off the coast of Santa Barbara. However, environmental groups note that this permit was always required.

AB 237 is not the only bill in the package that the advocates take issue with — they say SB 614 will lift the state’s moratorium on carbon pipelines. 

“Another hindrance to California’s efforts to protect communities from dangerous oil infrastructure, the legislature advanced SB 614 which creates a pathway to prematurely lift the moratorium on carbon pipelines,” the group revealed. “Alarmingly, there is no required setback to keep potentially explosive pipelines away from homes, schools, and other sensitive community sites.”

The coalition said carbon capture and storage, touted by the oil industry as a climate “solution,” poses serious risks. Carbon capture projects boast a long history of tragic accidents, making them risky for communities and the planet. Without setbacks, communities face potential explosions, leaks, and exposure to toxic CO2 plumes. 

As Gavin Newsom is planning to take the stage at New York Climate Week in order to greenwash his public image, Californians are calling on him to “reject industry pressure and commit to protecting people, not polluters.” Members of the Last Chance Alliance will be mobilizing there to highlight his signing of the legislation that expands oil drilling in California.

Representatives of advocacy groups in the Last Chance Alliance commented on the dire impacts that the newly-enacted legislation will have on communities around the state. 

“California’s leaders’ stunning betrayal of our air, land, water and communities is leaving us in a far worse place than when we started the session,” said Food & Water Watch’s California Director Nicole Ghio. “Our legislators put Big Oil interests ahead of consumer protections and community safety by creating a pathway to lift California’s CO2 pipeline moratorium and advancing the Western Grid scam. And Governor Newsom’s office directly spearheaded legislation to streamline new permitting for oil and gas wells in some of the most polluted parts of the state. We expect better of our state leaders and demand they hold Big Oil accountable in January, by advancing the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act.”

“These giveaways to Big Oil will worsen pollution for Californians, especially those in Kern County, and make future disasters more frequent and severe,” stated Hollin Kretzmann, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “It’s profoundly misguided to think that giving oil drillers free rein will bring down gas prices. This legislation will hit Californians in their wallets with the increased healthcare costs and climate damages that are the price for added drilling.”

“What these decisions say is that California leaders are willing to sacrifice entire communities to pollution if it means appeasing Big Oil,” said Woody Hastings, Phase Out Polluting Fuels Director for The Climate Center. “Handouts to fossil fuel executives will not lower the cost of living for Californians, they will only put the health of our frontline communities under attack.”

“Refinery closures are part of an energy transition,” observed Ilonka Zlatar, Climate Justice Organizer, Oil and Gas Action Network. “State leadership seemed wholly unprepared for the consequences of dropping demand for fuel because we don’t have a bold plan, vision, and investment to help fill the gaps in the economy during the transition. Agencies already have identified that gasoline reserves would safeguard against price spikes, yet they refuse to use their authority to implement it.”

“Californians pay over $1 more per gallon than other states in what is called a ‘mystery surcharge’ that can’t be explained by regulatory fees or costs, and seems to be just straight profits. Agencies have the authority to cap profits and directly reduce prices, but again, representatives refuse to use solutions that would actually work, and instead give into Big Oil demands in hopes that maybe this time they would reduce prices rather than stuff their pockets, which is what they have done time and time again,” Zlatar said.

Robert M. Gould, MD, President, San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility, concluded, “California is the fourth largest economy in the world, surely we can protect the health of our most vulnerable communities from the severe health harms caused by oil wells and production including increased risks of cancer, dementia, childhood developmental delays, poor birth outcomes, and asthma attacks, just to name a few. A healthier, all-electric and renewable energy economy is within reach. California should be leading the way for our communities and setting an example for the rest of the world.”   

Groups stage “Wild West Oil Town” protest at State Capitol

Before last Saturday’s vote, members of climate justice groups, including the Oil & Gas Action Network and Third Act Sacramento, staged what they called a “Wild West Oil Town” on the west lawn of the State Capitol on Thursday, September 11,

Arrayed in cowboy hats and clothing, they erected three wooden representations of oil derricks and pumpjacks —to show what happens when oil lobbyists call the shots in Sacramento like they are doing right now.

The advocates talked to legislators and passersby, urging the Legislature to vote no on the oil drilling expansion bill. But the Legislature instead voted for the biggest rollback of climate and safety protections in decades — what climate justice advocates called a “shady fossil fuel giveaway with zero transparency. 

The reason why Big Oil was able to get Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Senate and Assembly to do their bidding at this time is due to the huge amounts of money they are pumping into lobbying California officials, as well as into political campaigns.

Big Oil spends unprecedented millions to expand oil drilling and pollution 

As I have documented in article after article, Big Oil has been spending record millions of dollars to stop climate legislation like the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act and to pass bad bills like the Governor's legislation to exempt new oil drilling permits from environmental review.

In the second quarter of 2025, the oil and gas industry spent even more money lobbying state officials, a total of $9,206,886, than in the first quarter, stopping the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act and other climate legislation from moving forward.

That adds up to a total of over $18 million that Big Oil has spent to gut climate laws, dodge cleanup and keep polluting in the first 6 months of the year.

As usual, the majority of this fossil fuel cash was spent by Chevron and the Western States Petroleum Association. Chevron spent even more money on lobbying in the second quarter, $3,889,907, than in the first quarter, coming in first in lobbying expenses, according to the California Secretary of State’s Cal Access website for disclosures by lobbyist employers: cal-access.sos.ca.gov/...

Chevron has refused to respond to growing calls to boycott the company for its operation and co-ownership of Israeli-claimed fossil gas fields in the Mediterranean. At Chevron stations across the country, including in the Sacramento area and the San Francisco Bay Area, local human rights and environmental justice groups have been holding regular protests to highlight the company’s complicity in genocide, as well in environmental destruction and human rights violations across the globe.

The Western States Petroleum Association finished second in the oil industry lobbying expenses with $3,032,226 spent in the second quarter: cal-access.sos.ca.gov/…

With the first two quarters of the year combined, Chevron has spent $7.6 million, while WSPA has spent $6.5 million in 2025 to date.

In addition, Sable Offshore, the corporation that plans to restart the pipeline that caused the devastating Refugio Oil Spill that fouled the Southern California coastline in 2015, spent $419,000 fighting AB1448, a bill that would prevent drilling on public lands, in the first two quarters.

In the first quarter of 2025, the oil and gas industry spent a total of $9,139,655, according to disclosures on the California Secretary of State’s website.  

Chevron came in first with $3,758,914 spent, while the Western States Petroleum Association finished second with $3,471,879 spent from January 1 through March 31. That’s well over $7 million between those two organizations alone. Again, much of that money was spent on opposing the Climate Superfund Act and other climate bills in 2025's first quarter.

Chevron and the Western States Petroleum Association spend more than any other corporate lobbying organizations in Sacramento every year.

Last year the Western States Petroleum Association placed first in the Big Oil lobbying spending spree with $17.4 million, while Chevron came in second with $14.2 million. Spending by the Western States Petroleum Association and Chevron alone shattered the previous record, coming in at $31.6 million in 2024, according to data compiled by the Last Chance Alliance: lastchancealliance.org/...  

WSPA and the oil companies wield their power in 8 major ways: through (1) lobbying; (2) campaign spending; (3) serving on and putting shills on regulatory panels; (4) creating Astroturf groups; (5) working in collaboration with media; (6) sponsoring awards ceremonies and dinners, including those for legislators and journalists; (7) contributing to non profit organizations; and (8) creating alliances with labor unions, mainly construction trades.