How environmental groups lost Newsom to Big OilEnvironmental justice groups were riding momentum against the industry, but then refinery closure announcements changed everything.
California lawmakers are poised to pass a bill that would boost oil drilling in Kern County. | Camille von Kaenel/POLITICO
By Alex Nieves09/11/2025 09:33 PM EDT
SACRAMENTO, California — Environmental justice groups came into this session riding high on the back of wins over the oil industry — and they ran into the affordability buzz saw.
Organizations that started the year with ambitious goals of passing legislation to hold polluting companies liable for climate change damages — fresh off the ballot box defeat of an industry referendum challenging the state’s oil well setback law — instead find themselves making a last-ditch effort with just days left to kill SB 237, a bill backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and legislative leaders that would boost drilling in Kern County.
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That shift in momentum towards industry reflects Democratic lawmakers’ fears that the planned closures of two of the state’s nine refineries could send gas prices soaring — just as they’re trying to claw back seats from Republicans in a midterm election where both parties are trying to claim the affordability champion mantle. And it highlights the political risks of aggressively moving away from fossil fuels without a transition plan in place.
The episode is a microcosm of Democrats’ national reckoning over environmental protections that President Donald Trump has cast as cost drivers, putting environmental groups on the back foot.
“It’s one thing to have the sound bites at the ready during a campaign,” said Andrew Acosta, a veteran Democratic campaign consultant. “It’s different when all of a sudden a refinery says, ‘We’re out of here, California.’ That’s where we are now — this is real.”
Environmental groups haven’t given up the fight yet. Groups, including a campaign backed by Jane Fonda, announced their opposition to Democrats’ oil drilling bill shortly after it was published Wednesday morning, and erected model oil derricks on the Capitol lawn Thursday in protest.
But the vote count is looking insurmountable as even progressive stalwarts like Assemblymember Isaac Bryan and Sen. Henry Stern have voiced support for the plan to give state approval for a county ordinance that streamlines environmental permitting for new oil wells, which environmental justice groups had up until this point successfully stymied in court.
And lobbyists for the groups conceded that the fact a deal had been endorsed by Newsom, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D) and Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire (D) means it likely already has the votes to pass. They didn’t offer a vote count or names of lawmakers they’re trying to win over.
The writing was on the wall as early as April, when Valero announced the planned closure of its Bay Area refinery, a moment that marked a palpable shift in rhetoric around the Capitol.
“Call me born again, but I have seen the light on exactly what you’re talking about,” Stern told Republican colleagues during an April legislative hearing. “Kern County should be unleashed.”
The development has left organizations that praised Newsom in recent years for hammering Big Oil as the villain behind high gas prices fuming.
“What is particularly gut-wrenching about this moment is that it follows on the heels of some real leadership, strong leadership from the governor and the legislature on the policies we need,” said Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.
Siegel said she didn’t consider the bill as objectionable as Newsom’s draft bill environmental justice groups leaked to POLITICO in July, which proposed a statewide exemption from environmental permitting rules for wells in existing oil fields. That didn’t make it into SB 237, but neither did EJ asks for more monitoring of toxic gas leaks from oil wells, financial disclosures from refineries and a state-brokered deal with the oil industry to drop a lawsuit challenging the setback law.
The oil industry and labor unions aren’t completely happy with the bill, which would also place more oversight over offshore oil pipelines in response to a Texas-based oil company that is trying to restart a Santa Barbara pipeline that spilled in 2015. But they’ve registered “support if amended” positions, signaling that they don’t want to kill the Kern County language.
Environmental justice groups on the ground in the Central Valley say they’re now going back to the drawing board to find a message that will stick with lawmakers.
“I don’t see politics swinging back into our favor,” said Cesar Aguirre, co-director of the Central California Environmental Justice Network. “We’re going to have to work to somehow show that we’re worth protecting.” |
