4-04-07 by Court
The Sacramento Bee’s Shane Goldmacher reminds us again how big oil companies get extra special time with legislators beyond what their campaign contributions buy.
Goldmacher writes about a trip to Japan where powerful California lawmakers, including the chairs of the energy oversight committees in both house of the legislature, are shmoozing with energy and telecommunications executives. The trip is financed by the California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy (CFEE), whose "board of directors is populated by the top executives at the biggest energy and telecom companies in the state — among them AT&T, Verizon, PG&E, Chevron, Sempra Energy, Southern California Edison and BHP Billiton."
Last legislative break CFEE took Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, his wife, officials from the Public Utilities Commission, the Gov’s chief of staff and her partner, and various other state officials down to the Copacabana for a private rendevous with Chevron’s top lobbyist. When he came back from the junket, Nunez took a noticeably softer approach to oil companies than he had last year with Prop 87. He actually warned publicly that the legislature had to be careful not to demonize oil companies.
If Brazil was Chevron’s opportunity to change the Speaker’s mind, Japan is the moment for ConocoPhillips to woo key committee chairs about putting an LNG facility in the port of Long Beach, a bitterly opposed project with huge safety ramifications for Los Angeles.
The Bee’s Goldmacher reports:
The list of executives on the trip also includes Thomas Giles, chief executive officer, and Hiroki Haba, senior vice president for planning, of Sound Energy Solutions.
Mitsubishi-owned Sound Energy Solutions has joined forces with ConocoPhillips in hopes of establishing a liquefied natural gas, or LNG, terminal at the port of Long Beach.
That project has stalled, as a local commission voted to end negotiations earlier this year and the project’s environmental impact review is tied up in court.
But the two company executives will get to make their case in Japan, during a tour of an LNG facility in Tokyo Bay, identified on the itinerary as "Sound Energy … LNG tour/briefing."
Susan Jordan of the California Coastal Protection Network, an opponent of new LNG terminals, said the nonprofit’s trips allow corporate executives "an environment where you can develop relationships."
As my colleague Carmen Balber notes:
These luxury vacations billed as “study trips” are no different than Abramoff’s trips to Scotland. There’s a reason those time share companies will pay for your Vegas vacation. If they get you in the room for the pitch, they figure they’ve got you. Junkets with special interests have no place in California policymaking.
So if the prospect of $4 gas has you down, and you’re wondering why the legislature doesn’t seem to care, where your lawmaker spent their Spring Break may be a big part of the problem.