Chevron and Big Oil spend a total of $34 million to lobby California officials in 2025

Sacramento, CA - Big Oil pumped $34 million into influencing lawmakers in Sacramento in 2025, allowing fossil fuel corporations to stonewall and roll back critical health and climate policy in a year marked by the LA Fires and climate disasters across the planet.

This total wasn't far from 2024’s $38 million total, the fossil fuel industry’s highest spending year ever, according to an analysis by Sunstone Strategies for the Climate Center. Influence spending in the fourth quarter of 2025 was $7.7 million.

As usual, Chevron and the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) spent the most money in the fossil fuel industry - 73% of the $34 million. Chevron finished first in the spending with $12.9 million, while WSPA placed second with $12.4 million, coming to a total of $25.3 million.

Chevron and the Western States Petroleum Association have not been only the biggest spenders in the fossil fuel industry, but have been the top spenders on overall lobbying in Sacramento most years.

Californians for Energy Independence, an oil industry front group heavily funded by companies like Chevron that advocates for local oil and gas production, also poured $6.7 million into “general issues relating to energy independence in California,” according to disclosures on the California Secretary of the State’s website.

“This amount is not included in the total lobbying number, since it falls under Chevron’s expenses instead. Almost all of this lobbying spending is found in a payment for Winner And Mandabach Campaigns LLC, a national consulting firm specializing in ballot measure campaigns,” the analysis pointed out.

Top 5 lobbying and influence spenders of 2025:

Top 5 lobbying and influence spenders of Q4:

Chevron, known throughout the world for its complicity in the Gaza genocide and its long record of human rights violation and environmental devastation from Richmond, California to the Amazon, was among Big Oil groups pushing back against key climate bills like the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act.

This landmark law would hold major corporate climate polluters accountable for their fair share of the climate damages facing the state, according to advocates. Shell and WSPA also lobbied against this bill, resulting ultimately in the failure of the Legislature to advance this bill last session after industry attacks.

The bill’s sponsors said they remain committed to the campaign for a Polluter Pays Climate Superfund Act. Tracy, CA recently became the 25th locality to endorse the Act, according to advocates.

In addition, lobbying disclosures reveal lobbying by Valero, Phillips 66, and Exxon Mobil for SB 237, a gut-and-amend bill rushed through at the end of 2025 session to roll back environmental regulations and allow thousands of new oil and gas wells to be drilled per year. The bill, opposed by climate and environmental justice organizations, sought to open up Kern County to “increased dangerous, toxic drilling,” ostensibly in response to the closure of the Phillips 66 refinery in Southern California and upcoming closure of the Valero refinery in Benicia, advocates noted.

“While frontline communities in Kern County and across California suffer from chronic exposure to pollution due to oil drilling, Big Oil is weaponizing its wealth to secure industry friendly policy that pads their bottom line with disregard to impacted Californians,” the analysis pointed out.

“Big Oil spent big on lobbying in California — and it worked”

Representatives of environmental justice, community and climate groups commented on the second consecutive year of record lobbying spending by the oil and gas lobby in California.

“Last year, Big Oil spent big on lobbying in California – and it worked,” said Faraz Rizvi, Policy and Campaigns Manager at the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN). “Oil lobbyists used refinery closures and a campaign of misinformation to pressure the Governor and legislature into big giveaways to the oil industry which do absolutely nothing to benefit the communities living near California’s refineries or the workers who operate them,” said Rizvi. “In 2026, California has an opportunity to set a new course: responsibly stewarding the energy transition, safeguarding our health and climate progress, and centering the needs of frontline communities and workers along the way.”

Bahram Fazeli, Director of Research and Policy at Communities for a Better Environment, echoed Rizvi’s comments about the Big Oil misinformation campaign.

“In this vital decade of transitioning away from fossil fuels and creating a cleaner and more affordable economy in California, we are seeing an escalating campaign of disinformation by oil corporations that blames their exit from California on health protective common sense measures in our communities,” said Fazeli. “However, we all know the real reason is that fossil fuel demand in California is on the decline, and in response California elected officials should prepare visionary transition plans that protects communities and workers during this historic transformation.” 

Advocates are hoping that Governor Gavin Newsom, after supporting and signing legislation that will expand oil drilling in Kern County last year, will come around to support climate justice legislation this year.

“Big Oil sees the writing on the wall: California and the world are moving on to cleaner, cheaper, safer energy,” argued Woody Hastings, Phase Out Polluting Fuels Program for the Climate Center. “This multimillion-dollar spending spree is an attempt to prop up a declining industry and squeeze out as much profit for fossil fuel shareholders as possible, no matter the costs to public health and the climate. In his last year in office, we hope to work with Governor Newsom to hold Big Oil accountable, redirect state investment to real climate solutions, and establish his legacy as a climate leader.”   

Cesar Aguirre CCEJN, Director, Air and Climate Justice, discussed the dire health impacts of fossil fuel production in California.

“Oil and gas lobbyists spend millions to keep drilling next to our schools and homes,” said Aguirre. “They use money to try to drown out the voices of farmworkers who can’t breathe, of children using inhalers, of families watching their loved ones get sick. Corporate lobbying should not overpower community testimony. We know what we need to be healthy: clean air, safe water, and leaders who listen to us, not to the highest bidder. Every dollar spent silencing us is a dollar that could have gone to cleaning up their pollution. Our lungs shouldn’t be worth less than their profits, and our voices shouldn’t cost millions to be heard.”

Finally, Nicole Ghio, California Director at Food & Water Watch, concluded, “While people across California spent 2025 calling on our state leaders to hold polluters accountable for fueling the climate crisis that is costing us billions, Big Oil tried to drown out our voices by spending massive amounts of money to get out of any responsibility for the mess they made. Californians need a future full of clean, sustainable energy, clean air and water, and we need it now – not more Big Oil money in Sacramento.”

As climate justice advocates gear up their campaign to get the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act and other climate legislation passed by the Legislature this year, Governor Gavin Newsom continues to push the environmentally destructive and unjust Delta Tunnel and Sites Reservoir projects as the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta ecosystem continues its unprecedented collapse. Despite the dramatic impacts these projects would have upon climate progress in the state, Newsom continues to portray them as climate projects.  

International Boycott Against Chevron builds momentum

Meanwhile, the international boycott against Chevron continues. The American Friends Service Committee, along with Oil and Gas Action Network and other groups, is urging everybody to sign a letter telling them you’re joining the global boycott of Chevron gasoline/petrol for their role in Palestine, Venezuela and global destruction. 

To send a letter, go here: actionnetwork.org/...

The group notes that “Chevron fuels genocide, war, and climate crisis.” Chevron gas fuels nearly 50% of Israel's electricity grid, including Israeli military bases, prisons, police stations, and illegal settlements. Chevron is also first in line to profit from Trump's oil grab as the only U.S. oil company currently operating in Venezuela. 

“Chevron's fuel and tax revenue prop up the Israeli apartheid state. The deadly bombs Israel has been constantly dropping on Gaza for the last two years—the equivalent of nearly seven Hiroshima nuclear bombs—have intensified climate catastrophe,” the group added.

“Chevron has left a path of environmental destruction and human rights violations that have found them liable for over $50 Billion USD. They refuse to pay,” the group concluded.