Cal-Oil spills $9m in 2025 to defeat climate protection bills, records show
Chevron & Western States Petroleum lead the lobbyist attacks against state legislation that would hold them accountable for climate catastrophe
By Dan Bacher
Sacramento, CA. — The unprecedented lobbying spending spree by Big Oil that took place in 2023 and 2024 has continued into 2025 as the oil industry spends millions to stop the Polluters Pay Superfund Act and other climate legislation.
Gas and oil corporations spent a near-record pace of over $9 million to influence the California in the first three months of 2025, according to an analysis by Sunstone Strategies. The oil and gas industry spent a total of $9,139,655, according to disclosures on the California Secretary of State’s website.
“The industry deployed its profits to fight back against common-sense climate and polluter accountability bills. This Q1 spending spree mirrors Big Oil’s aggressive push in early 2023 to defeat a proposed penalty on oil price gouging,” the group reported.
As usual, Chevron and the Western States Petroleum Association, the most powerful corporate lobbying group in California, spent more than any other lobbying groups in the state in the first quarter of 2025.
Chevron came in first with $3,758,914.59 spent, while the Western States Petroleum Association came in second with $3,471,879.71 spent. That’s well over $7 million between those two organizations alone.
Major refiners Marathon Petroleum, Valero, and Phillips 66 each spent between $230,000 and $300,000.
Marathon Petroleum came in third with $301,023.56 spent, while Valero finished fourth with $242,781 and Phillips 66 came in fifth with $230,462.29 spent.
Big Oil and their trade associations actively opposed bills put forward by the Make Polluters Pay coalition, including Senator Wiener’s SB 222, which would have allowed climate disaster victims to seek compensation from the fossil fuel companies responsible. Chevron, WSPA, Marathon, and Valero were among those lobbying to kill the bill.
“Most recently, the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act has faced fierce industry opposition. Ten oil companies, including Chevron, Marathon, ExxonMobil, Shell, and PBF Energy, lobbied against the bill, which would hold fossil fuel corporations financially responsible for the damage they’ve caused. States like New York and Vermont have passed similar legislation,” the group reported.
Chevron also directed $235,000 to the front group Californians for Energy Independence and $64,000 to DDC Public Affairs, a Washington, DC firm notorious for building fossil fuel-funded front groups to block progressive energy policy, according to the group.
But climate justice advocates are striking back in reaction to the lobbying spending spree. ”In response to Big Oil’s massive Q1 lobbying blitz, climate justice advocates from across California rallied in Sacramento yesterday to champion the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act, SB 684 by Senator Menjivar, and AB 1243, by Assemblymember Addis and demand that polluters—not taxpayers—cover the cost of climate damages,” according to Sunstone Strategies.
“Led by the California Environmental Justice Alliance Action (CEJA Action), over 65 advocates joined lawmakers at the Capitol, calling for decisive action to hold fossil fuel corporations accountable,” the group stated.
The oil industry spent a record total of $38 million in lobbying expenses in California in 2024, shattering by 31 percent the annual state lobbying record of $26.2 million set in 2017, to thwart climate justice and other environmental legislation.
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. WSPA and Chevron accounted for 83% of the industry’s expenditure, according to an analysis by the Last Chance Alliance.
But the oil industry not only spent record amounts of money lobbying California officials in 2023 and 2024. It also sponsored dinners and journalism awards receptions for journalists and the media.
Dan Bacher is an independent journalist who has written on the state’s critical water and fisheries issues for 40 years.