ChevronTexaco Heavily Influenced California Restructuring

[Guest guest]

ChevronTexaco Heavily Influenced California Restructuring

 

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ® recently announced plan

to comprehensively reorganize state government brought grumbles from

some enviros, who were piqued by the proposed consolidation of

various boards and commissions from which many of the state's

groundbreaking environmental initiatives have emerged. This latest

news isn't going to mollify them. The proposed reorganization

contains several provisions that would directly benefit oil and gas

behemoth ChevronTexaco by revising the process for permitting and

siting refineries and streamlining the activities of the San

Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, which oversees

many of the company's interests in the Bay area. While environmental

watchdog groups and local agencies that oversee the company complain

that they had little access during the plan's development process,

ChevronTexaco's lobbyists, attorneys, and trade groups were

intimately involved at every step, perhaps because the company has

given more than $200,000 to Schwarzenegger's political committees

since he was elected, and $500,000 to the California Republican Party.

 

straight to the source: Contra Costa Times, Associated Press, Tom

Chorneau, 03 Sep 2004

<http://www.gristmagazine.com/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=2946>