Cost to Californians $10 Trillion by 2045 From Oil And Gas, Consumer Watchdog Reveals in New Report
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By Dan Bacher |
Los Angeles, CA—A new report released today by Consumer Watchdog reveals that the true cost to the public of California’s oil and gas production and combustion is estimated to reach $10 trillion by 2045.
Californians will be paying more than $400 billion annually in public costs caused by fossil fuels between now and 2045 when the state aims to be carbon neutral, according to the report.
“According to the oil industry, California oil and gas production is indispensable,” the Consumer Watchdog report states. “But a rough tally of costs in the form of harm to public health from oil and gas pollution, fossil-fuel accelerated global warming, exacerbated wildfires and drought, and fiscal risk to taxpayers, shows that the true cost of California’s oil and gas is staggering and unsustainable.”
The report is based on a review and application of published sources, including state, nonprofit, and scientific studies. For the report, Black Gold: The $10 Trillion Cost Of California’s Oil, see: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/costofoil
Here are how the costs break down through 2045:
| Fossil Fuel Effect | Annual Costs |
| Wildfires and Drought | $94.2 Billion |
| Heat-Related Deaths From CA Oil Wells | $1.4 Billion |
| Air Pollution | $339 Billion |
| Total Annual Cost | $434.6 Billion |
| Cumulative Cost Through 2045 (23 YRs) | $10.0 Trillion |
“The true cost of oil in the form of worsening climate change, wildfires and drought, causing health effects from smoke inhalation to death, is eye-popping,” said the report’s author, consumer advocate Liza Tucker. “These astronomical costs confirm that we have to act faster than we currently are to get off fossil fuels for the sake of Californians’ health and futures.”
The report is promoted today in a full-page Sacramento Bee ad by Greenpeace, Consumer Watchdog, CA Nurses for Environmental Health & Justice, and environmental justice coalition VISION (Voices in Solidarity Against Oil In Neighborhoods).
The groups are members of Last Chance Alliance, a 900-member strong alliance of organizations urging Governor Gavin Newsom to stop awarding drilling permits, drop current drilling in favor of a fast transition to renewables, and to end all neighborhood drilling in the state.
The ad states that oil and gas companies spent nearly $77.5 million on lobbying in California over the last three years to defeat climate and public health policies.
(Actually, it was over the past four years that fossil fuel companies paid almost $77.5 million to lobby lawmakers in Sacramento, reported Josh Slowiczek in Capital and Main on May 14.
“Oil and gas interests spent four times as much as environmental advocacy groups and almost six times as much as clean energy firms on lobbying efforts in California between 2018 and 2021, according to a Capital & Main analysis — reflecting the intensity of the industry’s efforts to influence policy in a state whose leaders have vowed to build an energy future free of fossil fuels,” Slowiczek wrote.)
Oil companies in the U.S. stand to collect $126 billion in wartime profits this year, while leaving Californians paying almost four times more annually than these profits in harm to their health and their futures. The ad links to an LCA letter urging Newsom to rein in polluter greed and protect Californians.
For the ad and the letter, see: http://www.lastchancealliance.org/rein-in-polluter-greed
The report concludes: “Governor Newsom’s goal for the state to be carbon neutral by 2045 will not come to pass if his Administration continues to approve oil and gas permits for new wells and to rework existing wells. The permit count has gone past 10,000 permits since he took office in January 2019, rivaling the number issued by former Governor Jerry Brown, a major oil industry supporter. ….Tardiness invites irreversible destruction. Meanwhile the costs of fossil fuels on California are only going in one direction—up.”
The Cause: Deep Regulatory Capture by Big Oil from Top to Bottom:
The nearly $77.5 million spent by oil and gas companies on lobbying in California over the past four years to defeat climate and public health policies is just one of the methods that Big Oil and Big Gas employ to capture the Governor’s Office, Legislature, regulatory agencies, NGOs and media in California.
WSPA and Big Oil 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) creating alliances with labor unions; (7) contributing to non profit organizations; and (8) sponsoring awards ceremonies, including those for legislators and journalists.
A May 2022 update to its Tracking the Dirty Dollars Project by Sierra Club California provides some clarity why California’s environmental policies, including protecting neighborhoods like Morning Star in Bakersfield from the dangerous health impacts of oil and gas drilling, don't live up to the “green” words of the state’s politicians.
This update reveals that only 15 legislators have not received campaign contributions from polluters and their allies since January 1, 2021.
“The report comes just as many Californians are beginning to fill out their ballots for the primary elections,” the Sierra Club reported today. “This election season, polluting industries have already spent more than $1.8 million in contributions to candidates’ campaigns.”
You can read the full overview for this report here and the report spreadsheets here.
The Club said the number of legislators that report more than $10,000 in dirty donations has grown from 17 in their last edition to a whopping 58 in this edition. Thirty-one legislators have received more than $20,000, 10 have received more than $30,000, and 3 have received more than $40,000 in contributions from oil and gas interests.
“As Californians fill out their ballots in the coming weeks, it’s more important than ever that transparent resources like the Dirty Dollars project exist to help inform their voting decisions,” said Brandon Dawson, director of Sierra Club California. “This election will be crucial in determining if Sacramento has the leadership necessary to confront the climate crisis, and voters should take into account the contributions that candidates accept from polluting interests as they cast their votes.”
Democratic Senator Steve Glazer leads all legislators reporting $66,000 in contributions from dirty donors, according to the Club. The vast majority of these contributions were directed to his campaign for State Controller. A large portion of these contributions came directly from the likes of Phillips 66, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and Valero.
“Republican Assemblymember Heath Flora placed second in total dirty donations with $53,000 dirty dollars. Asm. Flora is one of many Republicans who’ve accepted dirty donations this campaign cycle. So far, the California Republican Party Political Action Committee has accepted $1,245,175 in donations from polluting industries,” the Club stated.
“Unfortunately, many Democrats in the Assembly reported high dirty donation totals. Among the Assembly Democrats, Asm. Tom Daly leads with $44,100 dirty dollars. Asm. Jim Cooper, a Democratic favorite of the oil and gas industry, reported $36,350 in contributions from polluters and their friends,” the Club revealed.
“Other unsurprising names on the high-roller list include Asm. Tim Grayson ($32,900), Asm. Freddie Rodriguez ($31,000), Asm. Blanca Rubio ($31,000), Asm. Sharon Quirk Silva ($29,695), Asm. James Ramos ($28,000), Asm. Adam Gray ($27,200), Asm. Jose Medina ($26,700), Asm. Carlos Villapudua ($24,400), and Asm. Rudy Salas Jr. ($23,300). The California Democratic Party PAC accepted $60,000 in dirty dollars,” the group concluded.
Sierra Club California launched the Tracking the Dirty Dollars Project in November 2020 to shed light on oil and gas contributions to legislators and other state-level elected officials. The project sorts through existing public databases to identify who receives contributions from oil and gas companies and their allies through direct campaign contributions, independent expenditure campaigns, and gifts.
The project then presents the information in a clear format that makes it much easier for the general public and environmental activists to see what their elected leaders have received.
A cover report discussing the November installment and the data sheets comprising the three installments is available on Sierra Club California’s website. More information about the project is included in a November 2020 blog e-mailed to Sierra Club members and supporters around the state.
Oil and gas regulators continue to issue thousands of oil and gas permits
The Sierra Club May update was released as oil and gas regulators in California continue to issue thousands of oil and gas drilling permits.
The state’s oil and gas regulatory agency, CalGEM, has approved a total of 10,983 oil drilling permits from January 1, 2019 through March 31, 2022, Consumer Watchdog and Fractracker Alliance revealed at www.NewsomWellWatch.org. In addition, the groups found that the Newsom Administration approved 150 offshore drilling permits in state waters since January 1, 2019.
In the first quarter of this year, CalGem approved 639 total permits, a 3.2% increase from Gov. Newsom Q1 2021. 131 of those were new oil well permits, a 36% increase Q1 2021, while 508 were rework permits, a 2.9% decrease from QI 2021.
California oil and gas regulators have also approved 150 offshore drilling permits in state waters since January 1, 2019. Of those permits, five were for new wells and the rest were for reworking existing wells, according to Consumer Watchdog and FracTracker Alliance.
WSPA, the largest and most powerful corporate lobbying group in Sacramento, has spent over $17.5 million lobbying the California Legislature and other state officials over the past three years.
In the first quarter of 2022, WSPA continued its lobbying spending spree, dumping $952,366.91 into lobbying California officials, according to the latest data from the California Secretary of State’s website. Chevron spent even more money than WSPA in lobbying, $1,016,168.17, during the quarter.
However, it wasn’t either WSPA or Chevron that topped the fossil fuel lobbying expenses in the first quarter. Sempra Energy and Affiliates, including SoCalGas and the San Diego Gas and Electric Company, moved into first place with $1,961,178.39 in expenses in just the three month period.
Altogether, WSPA, Chevron, Sempra and other oil and gas corporations and trade associations pumped a total of $6 million into advancing the fossil fuel industry agenda in 2022’s first quarter.
California remains a major oil and gas producing state, although it has declined from its place as the nation’s third largest oil producer over the past several years. The state was 7th (2021) and 14th (2020) for oil and marketed natural gas production, respectively, among the 50 states, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Production of oil was about 131M barrels in 2021 and continues to decline from the 1985 peak
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Paid for by Sacramento County Democratic Central Committee FEC ID#741817 1017 L Street, Sacramento California |
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