The fossil fuel industry is spending record amounts to keep California from regulating it

Oil and gas companies spent more than $17 million lobbying California lawmakers in the first half of 2026, a record for the industry, according to a coalition called the Last Chance Alliance. The money went toward fighting bills on climate costs, worker safety, and pollution cleanup. Top spenders included the Western States Petroleum Association ($4.3 million), Chevron ($3.7 million), and refiner Phillips 66 (just over $500,000).

Much of the lobbying targeted California's cap-and-invest program, which makes companies pay for a shrinking number of pollution permits and is meant to help the state reach carbon neutrality by 2045. Oil interests recently won a change that could hand out many more free permits, potentially costing the state billions meant for public transit and housing. That change now faces a lawsuit and pushback from some lawmakers. The industry also fought bills on refinery staffing safety, oil well cleanup, offshore pipeline safety, and funding to help laid-off oil workers find new jobs — and succeeded in killing measures that would have let the state sue oil companies for climate-disaster costs (money that could have helped with rising home insurance costs) and made it harder for companies to walk away from methane-leaking wells, of which California has more than 100,000.

None of this requires action from homeowners. But it matters for anyone watching home insurance costs or hoping the state pushes harder on clean energy funding: some of the very policies aimed at addressing wildfire-driven insurance costs and funding public investment were defeated this year, while the industry posted record profits tied to global oil supply disruptions.