'Women's Empowerment Summit' Honors Big Oil Lobbyist/Former MLPA Chair

Western States Petroleum Association President Receives Two Awards!

by Dan Bacher

If anybody still has any illusions that California is a visionary “green” model for the rest of the nation, the unfounded myth of a “green California" promoted by Governor Jerry Brown and other state officials is quickly dispelled by an awards ceremony for one of the most powerful oil industry lobbyists in the country held in Bakersfield on May 7.

In a salute to California’s status as the third largest oil state in the country and Big Oil’s role as the most powerful corporate lobby in Sacramento, the "Women's Empowerment Summit" honored Catherine Reheis- Boyd, President of the Western States Petroleum Association and former Chair of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force to create so-called "marine protected areas" in Southern California, with the 2016 "Distinguished Woman and Petroleum Advocate of the Year" award.

In response to the flyer announcing the award, a tweet from the WSPA Truth Squad, a satirical website, commented, “Nothing screams 'women's empowerment' like some #oilbucks. Am I right?!”

The event, hosted by the California Latino Leadership Institute, was billed as the “First Annual CLLI Tri County Central Valley Women’s Empowerment Summit”

The corporate sponsors for the event included the “headline sponsor,” the California Resources Corporation (formerly Occidental Petroleum), along with Aera Energy, the Chevron Corporation and SEIU 521.

“The year 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that granted women the right to vote,” according to the online announcement for the event. “The Tri-County Women’s Empowerment Summit Program provides knowledge about resources and networking opportunities for a cross section of women participants by age, culture and interest including college students, small business owners, nonprofit leaders, community leaders and elected officials to succeed and improve their lives."

The Honorary Summit Co-Chairs were Supervisor Leticia Perez, 
Kern County Board of Supervisors 5th District, and Assembly Member Rudy Salas, 32AD
& Co-Chair, Assembly Moderate Democratic Caucus.

The presenting “Community Partners” included the Kern County Black Chamber of Commerce, Clayman Institute on Gender Research, Dress for Success Bakersfield, Latina Leaders of Kern County, Kern Community Foundation, Kern County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and United Way of Kern County.

After hearing about the award, Stop Fooling California (http://stopfoolingca.org/), in their “The Crude Truth" newsletter, commented:

"Catherine Reheis-Boyd, president of the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), is receiving TWO awards this weekend! She’ll receive the first annual Distinguished Woman and Petroleum Advocate of the Year award (because she leads the most powerful corporate lobbying group in Sacramento) AND our prestigious Scummy (because she’s an oil industry shill)." (http://us8.campaign-archive2.com/?u=cbf20e5a5b94a5c945c922a5b&id=e4b3320acb&e=c581b47f50)

I’m sure that Reheis-Boyd will “appreciate" her receiving the “Scummy” award from Stop Fooling California, just like she was enthralled with the two awards my “Cold, Dead Fish Awards" Committee bestowed upon her this February. (http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/02/12/governor-jerry-brown-receives-cold-dead-fish-award-four-years-in-a-row/)

For their negligence in maintaining the grossly corroded pipeline that caused a massive oil spill off the Santa Barbara Coast, Plains All American Pipeline CEO Greg. L Armstrong and Reheis-Boyd jointly received the “Big Oil Destroyer” award. Reheis-Boyd provided oil industry PR response to the spill, since the pipeline company is a member of her association.

To make matters even worse, the very same oil lobbyist CHAIRED the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force to create the faux “marine protected areas” that were fouled by the spill! The "marine protected areas” created under her stellar “environmental stewardship" fail to protect the ocean from oil spills, fracking, oil drilling, pollution, corporate aquaculture, military testings and all human impacts on the ocean other than fishing and tribal gathering.

Reheis-Boyd also received another “prestigious” award for last year’s record oil industry “gusher” of lobbying expenses that ensured that no environmental bill opposed by Big Oil was able to make out of the Legislature unless it was amended, as in the case of SB 350, the green energy bill. The oil lobby broke its prior spending record, spending $22 million over the past year.

WSPA spent a record $11 million on lobbying, making it the number one corporate lobbying spender in California for the fourth year in a row. For her industry’s successful capture of the regulatory apparatus in the state, Reheis-Boyd received the “Captured California” award,

Lobbying expenditures by WSPA continue to soar this year. “WSPA has spent an impressive $12.8 million so far in the 2015-16 legislative session, making them, per usual, the top California lobbying spenders of the session," Stop Fooling California noted.

The lobbying figures for the first quarter of 2016 are in and the oil industry heavy hitters - WSPA, Chevron, Phillips 66, AERA Energy, Exxon and Shell - have spent more than $25 million so far in the 2015-16 legislative session. The oil industry has been spending an average of $55,000 per day since January 1, 2015, according tp the latest report on oil industry lobbying by the American Lung Association in California. (http://www.lung.org/local-content/california/documents/oil-industry-lobbying-2016-may-2-2016.pdf)

The oil industry expenditures on lobbying are even more alarming when you look at the national figures. The oil and gas industry spent over $141 million lobbying Capitol Hill in 2014 - more than $350,000 a day, according to Clean Water Action. This money helps elect candidates who support pro-industry legislation and weakening regulations and landmark environmental laws that protect our air, water, fish and wildlife. (http://www.cadelivers.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Oil-Industry-Lobbying-2015-update-4_2.1.16._FINAL.pdf)

"When Big Oil pollutes our politics, it impacts us all," Stop Fooling California concluded.

California and U.S. politics have definitely been fouled and polluted by Big Oil money, just like the Refugio Oil Spill of 2015 fouled and polluted the so-called “marine protected areas” created under Reheis-Boyd’s “leadership” as Chair of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force for Southern California.

Ironically, two days before Reheis-Boyd was scheduled to receive her award, around 30 residents of Kern County traveled to the State Capitol in Sacramento with a much different message — to protest the contamination of their water, food and air by the oil industry.

Three of the protesters — Rosanna Esparza, PHD, Kern County Organizer at the Clean Water Fund, Tom Franz, farmer and member of the Association of Irritated Residents, and Lupe Martinez, Assistant Director of the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment (CRPE)— prayed and conducted a two-hour sit in front of the Governor's Office until a member of the Governor’s staff met with them.

“Governor Brown wants the world to think he is a 'climate leader,' but here in California we know that’s not the whole story," emphasized Juan Flores, a Kern County community leader. "Here in my town of Shafter, fracking is contaminating our water, our food, and our kids' hopes for a healthy future. Governor Brown has the authority to ban dangerous drilling and protect our communities – but so far, he’s refused to act for the people he represents."

For more information, go to: http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/5/5/1523580/-Breaking-Kern-Co-Residents-Conduct-Capitol-Sit-In-to-Protest-Central-Valley-Oil-Drilling