California is a major petroleum refining state. However, two refineries — Phillps 66 in Wilmington and Valero in Benicia — have announced plans to close at the end of 2025 and early 2026, respectively. Together, these refineries produce about 17 percent of the state’s gasoline supply. If both refineries close as planned, the state could … Read more
On April 22, 2025, The Climate Center convened 400 climate activists, environmental justice advocates, state decision-makers, elected officials, business leaders, scientists, and policy experts for the fourth annual California Climate Policy Summit. Thank you to everyone who joined us! Together, we’ll continue building support for accelerated, equitable climate policy. Read here the opening remarks from The … Read more
The fourth annual California Climate Policy Summit took place on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Sacramento. Thank you to our speakers, sponsors, and to the 400 state decision-makers, elected officials, climate activists, environmental justice advocates, business leaders, scientists, and policy experts who joined us to build power behind accelerated, equitable climate action! Videos, transcripts, slides, … Read more
In 2023, Governor Newsom signed SBX1-2, which aims to prevent fuel price-gouging. The law includes a provision for the California Energy Commission and California Air Resources Board (CARB) to conduct a Transportation Fuels Assessment and develop a Transportation Fuels Transition Plan that will determine how the state transitions to clean fuels. CARB will be starting … Read more
On March 20 2024, the day after the California Climate Policy Summit, The Climate Center and our partners led a day of advocacy at state legislative offices. This was an opportunity to meet directly with lawmakers and their staff to deliver a clear and compelling message about the bills we want to see California pass … Read more
California and a few other climate-leading states and countries have made initial progress reducing demand for oil — for example through deploying electric vehicles — but have done very little on the supply side. The International Energy Agency tells us that staying below 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming is incompatible with any new oil and … Read more
California Climate Policy Summit 2024 Thank you to everyone who joined us for the third annual California Climate Policy Summit! We’re honored to have brought together more than 350 climate activists, environmental justice advocates, state decision-makers, elected officials, business leaders, scientists, and policy experts to build support for climate policy commensurate with what science demands. … Read more
California must strengthen — not weaken — our state’s program to bring rooftop solar and storage to California’s 16 million renters. Working-class and frontline communities have suffered too long from air pollution, climate disasters, skyrocketing utility bills, and blackouts. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) recently considered proposals from corporate utilities to gut the state’s … Read more
Governor Newsom is taking on Big Oil in a big way. Recently, he announced that California is suing five of the largest oil corporations in the world — Exxon, Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and BP — as well as the American Petroleum Institute, for their decades of climate deception. This lawsuit is huge not only because … Read more
Last year, Governor Newsom set aside $40 million to in a fund to support displaced oil and gas workers and an additional $20 million for a pilot program to train displaced oil and gas workers in Kern and Los Angeles counties for abandoned oil well abatement. Facing a projected $31.5 billion deficit this year, the … Read more
