Big Oil's Campaign of Deception Reported
Receiving Loans of $14.4 Million from
14 Oil Companies; Possibly to Shield Public Disclosure and Avoid
Paying Taxes
SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 8, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- As Big Oil continues to spend more than
$60 million on a misinformation
campaign, lying to voters about the public health benefits of
keeping a law (SB 1137 - Senator Lena
Gonzalez) that protects communities from toxic oil and gas
drilling, the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy California and
Senator Lena Gonzalez are calling on
the State Legislature to investigate a shady tactic Big Oil is
employing to fund their campaign of deception.
Despite record breaking profits, fourteen oil companies avoided
making direct contributions to their campaign to overturn Senator
Gonzalez's law to keep California
schools and neighborhoods safe from toxic drilling (SB 1137).
Instead, these fourteen oil companies gave "loans" to their
deceptive referendum campaign - a curious move that may be allowing
oil companies to avoid paying taxes and delaying disclosure of
certain campaign funders until after the election when donors can
give to help Big Oil pay back these loans. Even more than a year
after the "loans" were made, not a single payment has been made on
these "loans," nor have any interest charges been reported.
"Not only is Big Oil trying to overturn California's common-sense law to prevent them
from poisoning California schools
and neighborhoods with their toxic oil drills, it looks like they
may have found a tax and campaign finance loophole that may be
allowing them to deceive voters about the true nature of their
contributions while avoiding taxes," said Senator Lena Gonzalez, the author of SB 1137. "I am
calling on my colleagues in the Legislature to investigate this
practice and close any loopholes we find."
Big Oil has a history of obfuscating how and where they are
spending money on political campaigns. Just last year, while
spending tens of millions of dollars on a signature gathering
campaign, Big Oil was caught blatantly lying to voters and tricking
them into signing a petition to stall and delay implementation
of SB 1137.
Following that, lobbying reports showed that oil companies like
Chevron, Valero, ExxonMobil, BP, Phillips66, Tesoro and Marathon
Petroleum funded ad campaigns fronted by groups that masqueraded as
coalitions.
Chevron is also a known tax avoider: in 2015, a U.S. Senate
investigation found the giant multinational had been hiding
$31 billion in profit in 13 different
offshore tax havens.
Three years later in 2018, Dutch and international unions filed a
complaint alleging that Chevron funneled billions through Dutch
subsidiaries to tax haven countries.
"We know that Big Oil will stop at nothing to try and protect
their billions in profits at the expense of the health and safety
of our communities," said Mabel
Tsang, Political Director for California Environmental
Justice Alliance and CEJA Action,
and Board Member of the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy California.
"We're calling on the legislature to close loopholes that allow
these bad actors to play a shell game with their funding in order
to deceive voters, and potentially benefit from tax breaks as a
result."
Here is the letter being sent to: Assemblymember
Jaqui Irwin
Chair, Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation; Senator
Steven M. Glazer
Chair, Senate Committee on Revenue and Taxation; Assemblymember
Gail Pellerin
Chair, Assembly Committee on Elections; and Senator Catherine Blakespear
Chair, Senate Committee on Elections and Constitutional
Amendments.
Nearly 30,000 oil and gas wells in California sit within 3,200 feet of homes,
schools, hospitals and other public areas, exposing nearly 3
million people, disproportionately communities of color, to
emissions that can cause birth defects, respiratory illnesses and
cancer. An independent scientific advisory panel in
2021 advised California
officials that a 3,200-foot setback between oil wells and sensitive
receptors is the minimum distance to protect public
health.
"KEEP THE LAW" Campaign endorsers include public health groups,
community and faith organizations, and environmental justice
leaders from across California,
working to hold oil companies accountable for creating a public
health crisis, especially for communities of color.
For more information about our campaign, please visit our
website at: www.CAvsBigOil.com
Paid for by Campaign for a Safe and Healthy
California, sponsored by nonprofit environmental and health
organizations. Committee Top Funders: Advocacy Action Fund, Inc,
Wendy Schmidt, Federated Indians of
Graton
Rancheria
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SOURCE Campaign for a Safe and Healthy California