Gavin Newsom pounces as Republicans come to Big Oil’s defense
SACRAMENTO, California — Gov. Gavin Newsom has a new set of adversaries in his hard-charging campaign against Big Oil.
Nineteen Republican attorneys general asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to block lawsuits from California and four other states attempting to make major oil companies pay for climate change damages.
“These Republican-led states are acting as wholly-owned subsidiaries of Big Oil, filing directly in the Supreme Court to do the industry's bidding of pursuing more profits and pollution,” the California Democrat said in an exclusive statement to POLITICO. “California will continue fighting for everybody who’s been hurt and ripped off by Big Oil.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued Chevron and four other major oil companies in September, accusing them of suppressing and spreading disinformation for decades about the link between fossil fuels and catastrophic climate change.
Thursday’s filing, led by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, accuses California, New Jersey, Minnesota, Connecticut and Rhode Island of trying to hold energy companies accountable for emissions beyond their own borders in violation of the Commerce Clause and other federal provisions.
“These states are welcome to enforce their preferred policies within their jurisdiction, but they do not have authority to dictate our national energy policy,” Marshall said in a statement. “If the Supreme Court lets them continue, California and its allies will imperil access to affordable energy for every American.”
The Supreme Court has shot down similar challenges, including with a decision a year ago that allowed lawsuits from local governments to proceed in state court, rather than be moved to federal courts as oil companies wanted.
Red states have also challenged — so far unsuccessfully — California’s long-standing authority to set its own vehicle emissions standards. They have sued the U.S. EPA over rules to regulate emissions from power plants, vehicles and oil and gas production facilities.
New Jersey and Connecticut attorneys general defended their climate damages lawsuits, dismissing the Republican challenge as partisan politics.
Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential contender and top surrogate for President Joe Biden’s reelection, has picked fights with Republican governors over hot-button issues such as abortion and guns.
Now he’s gone on the offensive over green energy. He’s made attacking Big Oil a central plank of a climate platform that he showcased in trips to China, the Vatican and New York (where he announced the climate damages suit last fall).
Last week he unloaded on Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo after the Republican governor wrote Newsom with concerns that his push to cap oil refiners’ profits could backfire, raising prices in both California and Nevada, which gets 88 percent of its gas from the Golden State.
Newsom has pushed for a profit cap since the state’s gas, which is usually the most expensive in the nation, reached a new record-high average of $6.44 a gallon two years ago while oil companies reported record profits. He accused companies of “gouging” consumers and pushed legislation that gives the California Energy Commission authority to impose a cap, which it could do by the end of this year.
He’s also pushed for one of the nation’s largest buffer zones between oil wells and homes, initiated a fracking ban and gone after oil producers’ tax breaks.
Congressional Democrats may be following his lead. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) published a report in April titled “Big Oil’s Evolving Efforts to Avoid Accountability for Climate Change.”
Whitehouse, along with Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) launched an investigation this week into an oil industry dinner with former President Donald Trump where he asked them for $1 billion in campaign donations.
“Open corruption,” Newsom called it at the Vatican earlier this month. “A billion dollars to pollute our states, to pollute our country and to pollute this planet to roll back progress. This is the moment we’re living in and it calls for clarity and it calls for understanding what we're up against.”
Chris Cadelago contributed to this report.
