Legislature passes bill to expand oil drilling in Kern Co. as Big Oil spends millions

Shallow, poorly informed pundits and influencers constantly push the myth that California is the nation’s “green” and “progressive” leader. But the actual reality on the ground is much, much different.

Case in point: Big Oil won a major victory on September 13 when the California Legislature passed Governor Gavin Newsom’s bill, SB 237, as part of a controversial “climate” package that greenlights tens of thousands of new oil and gas drilling permits in Kern County over the next decade with no further environmental review.

S.B. 237, a gut-and-amend trailer bill introduced at the end of the legislative session, exempts oil drilling in Kern County from the landmark California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for the next 10 years, including allowing the rubber stamping of up to 20,000 new wells.

“In addition, it sets the stage for loosening gasoline pollution requirements at the behest of refineries, which would worsen air pollution across the state,” according to a statement by Hollin Kretzmann, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.

“It’s senseless and horrifying that California just gave its seal of approval to this reckless ‘drill, baby, drill’ bill,” said Kretzmann. “This vote is a deep betrayal of Californians’ trust and values. Lawmakers went behind closed doors and gutted our environmental and health protections to benefit Big Oil. The sad truth is that more drilling will increase pollution and climate-fueled heatwaves, wildfires and floods but it won’t do a thing about gas prices.”

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

The vote took took place after a record year for lobbying spending in Sacramento by the fossil fuel industry — and after an avalanche of Big Oil lobbying spending in the first six months of this year. The vote also followed an intense campaign by environmental justice, climate, conservation and public interest groups to stop the environmentally devastating legislation.

Before the 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.”

Ilonka Zlatar of the Oil and Gas Action Network succinctly explained the consequences of passing AB 237. 

“AB 237 treats Kern County as a sacrifice zone,” Zlatar told me at the protest. “Up to 2,000 new oil wells will be allowed  per year.” 

She noted that Kern County has the worst air quality of any county in the nation, according to the annual State of the Air report by the American Lung Association, and that expanding oil drilling will only make things worse.

A recent Sierra Club report estimates that in Kern County alone, a total of 50,984 oil wells are actively leaking some amount of methane, harming the health and safety of nearby residents. Methane has 80 times the climate-warming power of carbon dioxide, and is also highly flammable and prone to leaks.

“Methane is 80 times more potent than CO2 in a 20-year time frame — and will greatly contribute to more pollution and exacerbate the climate crisis,” Zlatar noted. “Big Oil is feeding into the hysteria about high gas prices in California with the news that two oil refineries are closing. But this legislation won’t do anything about lowering gas prices.”

On the Wednesday before the vote, the Big Three – Governor Newsom, Senator Pro Tem McGuire and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas —  celebrated their end of the session deal for “Landmark Clean Energy, Climate and Affordability Solutions” with a headline that declared, “California is delivering real and lasting energy savings for families, workers and businesses.”

“After months of hard work with the Legislature, we have agreed to historic reforms that will save money on your electric bills, stabilize gas supply, and slash toxic air pollution — all while fast-tracking California’s transition to a clean, green job-creating economy,” Newsom said in a statement.

But Jamie Court, Executive Director of Consumer Watchdog, strongly disagreed with Newsom’s assessment of the climate package.

“It’s a load of horse poop,” said Court. “The truth is 90% of the “solutions’ will drive up costs for gasoline and electricity.”  

“Rather than delivering clean energy and climate solutions, the package will open Kern County up to indiscriminate oil drilling, divorced from any needs of pipelines there to feed crude oil into Northern California refineries. That hurts Kern County communities that had hoped for a future free from poisonous oil drilling, which is what Governor Newsom promised them less than a year ago,” Court noted.

Kretzmann explained the long-term consequences of the passage of the oil industry-backed legislation.

“It’s telling that the legislature and the governor’s office crafted these bills through backroom deals,” said Kretzmann. “When the public is left out, industry insiders come away with disastrous giveaways. Lawmakers can’t repeat this ugly and unfair process next session. We need our lawmakers to work to transition the state away from the fossil fuel industry once and for all. Otherwise, these oil industry bullying tactics are going to lock Californians into a devastating cycle of exploitation and harm,” he concluded.

Background: Big Oil spends record millions to advance corporate polluters’ agenda

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.

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 proposed 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.

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 in 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.

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.