With gas prices recently hitting record highs, Big Oil has turned up the propaganda machine to insist that more drilling will alleviate our pain at the pump.
What the oil barons don’t want to talk about is their record-breaking profits for the first quarter of 2022.
Fossil fuel companies are taking advantage of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine by raising gas prices and raking in record profits. California’s own Chevron just announced that its profits have already quadrupled to $6.3 billion in just the first quarter of this year. Big Oil executives are spending millions to pressure California lawmakers to ramp up in-state production and to resist commonsense regulations.
The only way to protect people from Big Oil’s price gouging is to speed up a just, clean-energy transition. Mark Jacobson’s team at Stanford University has developed plans, ready to be implemented, to power our state with renewables. And we have no time to waste. California is already ground zero for the climate crisis.
Recently 350 SB and the Society of Fearless Grandmothers took to the streets to publicize Big Oil’s record profits and tell Gov. Gavin Newsom: “Say No to Big Oil Greed. No New Fossil Fuels.”
Gov. Newsom must stand up to Big Oil and make California a leader in the just transition to renewable energy — for the sake of our grandchildren and our planet.
Irene Cooke
Goleta
Editor’s note: Irene Cooke is with the Society of Fearless Grandmothers.
