California Governor Gavin Newsom retweeted from his personal account a statement made by his office that accuses Big Oil of “running ‘misleading’ ads on TV and online across the state, lying to Californians to protect their record profits while polluting our communities.”
Big Oil, as the world’s biggest oil companies are collectively called, posted profits of nearly $200 billion in 2022, while Americans paid higher prices at the pump and heard repeated narratives about “Putin’s war” in Ukraine being largely responsible for driving up fuel prices.
Big Oil is running misleading ads to Californians to protect their record profits while polluting our communities — don’t be duped.
— Office of the Governor of California (@CAgovernor) February 10, 2023
We’re working with the Legislature to advance a price gouging penalty to hold Big Oil accountable.https://t.co/5UwFmiECbg
But that’s not the whole story, according to Newsom. And the governor has powerful company in calling out the oil industry for price gouging — President Biden has done the same.
In October, Biden held a press conference in which he addressed the industry’s outsize profits at length, saying “it’s time for these companies to stop war profiteering, meet their responsibilities to this country, and give the American people a break and still do very well.”
Biden added that he was a “capitalist” — saying “I have no problem with corporations turning a fair profit or getting the return on their investment and innovation.” That said he had a hard time reconciling that Exxon’s profit in the third quarter was three times what it recorded the previous year and “the most in its 152 year history.”
Newsom is as familiar with the oil industry as any governor outside Texas and Alaska. His father, William Newsom, was a state appeals court judge who was a close friend of Gordon Getty, son of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. William Newsom eventually became the administrator of the multi-billion dollar Getty Family Trust. Governor Newsom grew up with close ties to the Getty family. In slamming Big Oil today is Newsom biting the hand that once fed him?
For perspective, when the Getty Oil business was sold to Texaco in 1984 for $10.1 billion (roughly $30 billion today), it was the largest corporate acquisition in US history.
Now as Newsom threatens to work “with the Legislature to advance a price gouging penalty” against Big Oil, the Governor must certainly feel that he’s going after a different and much bigger beast than the Getty that was so helpful to him. The profits for that Exxon third quarter Biden mentioned? That figure was $18.7 billion — that’s in three months.
