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March 22, 2023
SBX1-2 now includes the creation of a new independent watchdog within the California Energy Commission (CEC) charged with monitoring California’s petroleum market on a daily basis to ensure market participants don’t break the law.
“We know the effects the oil industry’s price gouging had on our communities and it must stop. By creating an oversight committee, we are letting Californians know that they will not be taken advantage of at the pump anymore,” said Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan, who attended the meeting where Newsom gave a briefing on the new proposal with former Culver City Mayor Meghan Salhi-Wells of Elected Officials to Protect America (EOPA) California.
February 22, 2023
Sacramento, CA — New research shows today’s Senate Informational Hearing on high gas prices and a
price gouging penalty will be stacked with witnesses in favor of Big Oil and opposed to holding
refiners accountable for fleecing Californians at the pump.
Four of the witnesses organized by the Senate Energy, Utilities, and Communications Committee have
deep associations with the oil and gas industry, and specifically with the five Big Oil refiners
targeted via SBX1-2 for a price gouging penalty or windfall profits cap
January 2022
Elected Officials to Protect America (EOPA) California has lauded Governor Newsom’s previous budget that made unprecedented investments in climate crisis mitigation, including investment funding for offshore wind energy to move forward. His law that will prevent new oil drilling in neighborhoods and apply strict pollution controls to existing neighborhood oil drilling sites, will help protect communities from carcinogenic fossil fuel fumes. The funding for it, Senate Bill 1137, to move forward in this budget is critical. The $100 million committed in 2022 to be spent over 2 years for plugging and abandonment of oil wells is a major health initiative and will continue. His scientific fire mitigation efforts are necessary. His electric vehicle program is groundbreaking, but should not be threatened with this proposed budget. His steadfast commitment to ensure people are reimbursed for oil industry price gouging shows he understands where justice is needed. We will continue to work to ensure that the windfall profit cap on the oil industry for what the governor called, ‘fleecing consumers,’ happens. The people deserve the return of their earnings. EOPA California stands firmly behind all these and other climate crisis efforts his administration has achieved.
December 14, 2022
Across the state, industrial oil operations take place just feet from homes, schools and hospitals, increasing community risks of asthma, preterm birth, cancer and premature death. Too many community members have lost their lives due to the toxins they have to breathe daily. Senate Bill (SB) 1137, a groundbreaking law that banned new oil drilling within 3,200 feet of homes, schools, hospitals and prisons would have improved the quality of life for millions living and working near oil wells.
But on December 13, the California Independent Petroleum Association announced it collected enough petition signatures to overturn SB 1137. The measure had come before the legislature previously in various forms. The difference this year was that Governor Gavin Newsom headed the fight to pass this setback safety zone law.
December 7, 2022
On December 7, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced results from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM’s) wind energy auction for five leases that will go to offshore wind sites in California. This is the first ever lease sale for the Pacific region, and the first for floating offshore wind farms of this scale in America.
BOEM’s lease sale offered five lease areas covering 373,268 total acres off central and northern California. The combined lease areas of Morro Bay and Humboldt County will generate 4.6 gigawatts and power approximately 1.5 million homes. California’s overall offshore wind goal is 25 gigawatts of floating offshore wind capacity by 2045, set by the California Energy Commission.
December 7, 2022
Sacramento.
Members from Elected Officials to Protect America (EOPA) California gathered in Sacramento for an inaugural California Climate Emergency & Energy Security Summit at the California Energy Commission (CEC)The major focus was the buildout of offshore wind as a key component to fight the climate crisis.
A range of experts discussed how transitioning to a 100 percent clean energy will help California’s prosperity with an equitable transition from fossil fuels. The road to become energy independent will protect peoples’ pocketbooks from fossil fuel fluctuations and their health from hazardous fossil fuel fumes that also cause greenhouse gas emissions — while protecting our national security and planet.
December 5, 2022
Sacramento. At a press conference at the Capitol, state lawmakers and local elected officials urged legislation on a windfall profits cap. Elected Officials to Protect America (EOPA) California local elected officials from frontline communities spoke about how their communities are being affected from gas prices as the oil industry continues to rake in billions of dollars in profits with no regard for how it hurts Californians, our climate and security.
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