SACRAMENTO, CA – A new exposé reveals how the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), the oil industry’s most powerful lobbying group in California, has spent tens of millions of dollars creating and funding grassroots organizations to mislead the public on climate, derail public health and environmental policies, and protect Big Oil’s profits at taxpayers’ expense. 

“This report reaffirms what we already know: Big Oil spends big to deceive the public in its campaign to profit by ripping off consumers, attempting to rob Californians of a decade of progress on climate action,” said Nicole Ghio, California Director of Food & Water Watch. 

Ten years after WSPA’s infamous slide deck leaked — outlining a strategy to deploy astroturf groups to create the illusion of grassroots support for Big Oil — advocates are updating the public on these front groups. The new report exposes how the oil industry continues to wield influence in California politics, even as genuine grassroots movements push for bold climate measures to hold polluters accountable, protect community health, and end drilling.

“This is textbook astroturfing. Since they don’t have any legitimate grassroots support, WSPA uses a network of front groups with intentionally misleading names, like Californians for Energy Independence, to lobby on behalf of oil and gas companies and against the public interest,” said Jamie Henn, Executive Director of Fossil Free Media. “ With the world looking to states like California to help lead the climate fight, it’s more important than ever to shine a spotlight on these industry villains who are standing in the way of progress.”

The past decade of WSPA’s front group deception is just one chapter in a much longer history. Newly released documents reveal that WSPA’s first front group dates back to the 1950s, playing a key role in obscuring the true causes of smog in Los Angeles. Even more alarming, the documents show that WSPA knew fossil fuels would drive climate change but chose to cover it up. 

Key Findings Include:

• A Network Built to Deceive: WSPA’s 2014 leaked slide deck revealed a sprawling web of misleadingly named groups, such as Californians for Energy Independence and Californians Against Higher Taxes, aimed at fighting public health protections and climate action while shielding oil companies from accountability. Many of those groups remain active today, spending millions aiming to derail crucial climate justice policies.

• Massive Spending on Influence: Front groups linked to WSPA spent nearly $32 million on California political influence since 2014, with nearly 67% of this spending occurring in the last two years alone. They have amassed over $115 million in contributions and grants since the slide deck leaked. 
• Chevron as the Chief Financier: Chevron contributed 63% of the California influence spending money for the front groups, the lion’s share of funding over the decade, spending $10.9 million (37%) during the 2023-2024 legislative session alone. 
• Misinformation Blitz: Tax forms show an over $41.3 million spend on deceptive advertising campaigns from over the last 10 years, including ads opposing measures to prevent price gouging at the pump and legislation aimed at compelling Big Oil to pay to clean up its toxic idle wells.

Read the full report here: lastchancealliance.org/decadeofdelays/ 

“Big Oil and WSPA continue the charade of using front groups to feign a sense of popular resistance to the energy transition that simply doesn’t exist. Californians at large understand the need to end our reliance on fossil fuels,” said Ilonka Zlatar, organizer with Oil and Gas Action Network. “We know that when actually having to face the public, they have withdrawn ballot initiatives statewide–as with the measure aiming to repeal the ban on neighborhood oil drilling–and locally in Richmond where they settled in giving the city $550 million rather than face voters on a refinery tax. They know if they actually had to face the public, they will lose; that’s why they continue to funnel millions through fake groups.”

The state has taken steps to hold polluters accountable — like the recent lawsuit by the CA Attorney General against major oil companies, including members of WSPA, for decades of climate denial. This report underscores the urgent need to dismantle WSPA’s influence machine. Further, it serves as further evidence for Attorney General Rob Bonta in considering adding WSPA as a defendant in the state’s climate deception litigation, as Multnomah County, Oregon did recently, citing the leaked slide deck in doing so. Advocates are further calling for greater transparency and accountability measures to ensure that communities, not polluters, shape the state’s future.

“Big Oil has spent multiple millions over multiple decades to hide its climate crimes. Using deceptive front groups to delay common-sense pollution protection in our communities, it has cynically blamed climate regulation for high gas prices, even as corporate profits achieved record highs,” said Meghan Sahli-Wells, California Director for Elected Officials to Protect America and Former Mayor of Culver City. “WSPA should not get away with its continued blatant lies to the public. We urge the addition of WSPA to Attorney General Bonta’s Climate lawsuit.” 

“Oil companies can hide but they cannot run,” said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog. “For the last decade oil companies have tried to hide their influence in phony front groups but they have also seen California enact the greatest accountability laws in American history from reining in refiner profiteering to limiting drilling near communities to ending fracking. California voters and policymakers saw through the front groups and did the right thing for our climate, our health and our wallets.”

LCA LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We acknowledge that Sacramento is the traditional home of the Maidu, Miwok and Nisenan people. Part of our commitment to decolonizing ourselves, our language, and our organizations is a commitment to learning and better understanding the history of Indigenous Peoples of so-called California, including the history of contact, colonization and the extraction of resources from Indigenous lands which has been part of the continuation of modern colonization.