Oil Refinery Plant (Photo: chuyuss/Shutterstock)
California’s Corrupt Air Board and The Great California Shakedown
This is a massive redistribution of private sector wealth
By Katy Grimes, November 4, 2024 2:55 am
The California Air Resources Board, which will be voting on new gas regulations Nov. 8th likely resulting in a .65 cent per gallon increase in gas prices, proudly just announced they have issued a massive fine to Valero oil company:
Bay Area Air District and CARB fine Valero Refining Co. $82 million for air quality violations
Historic penalties to benefit the Benicia area and overburdened communities around the Bay Area
It’s not just any fine, “This penalty is the largest ever assessed in the Air District’s history.”
The air district referenced is the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, which together with California Air Resources Board (CARB) made the announcement of the nearly $82 million penalty “to address significant air pollution violations by Valero Refining Co. at its Benicia refinery.”
This redistribution of private sector wealth will ostensibly be spent on the local community, justifying the fine: “Over $64 million of these funds will be returned to the local community to finance projects aimed at reducing air pollution exposure, mitigating air pollution impacts and improving public health in areas surrounding the refinery.”
Ah, the funds will be “returned” to the community – but only after they are taken from Valero by the state.
The Air Board’s millionaire Executive Director is giddy about the shakedown:
“CARB is pleased to have supported the Air District in investigating and settling this important case that helps remediate the harms Valero’s operations caused to surrounding communities,” said CARB Executive Officer Dr. Steven Cliff. “The Air District’s new community fund provides critical funding for projects that improve air quality and public health for impacted local communities. CARB is proud to direct the majority of its share of the penalties from this settlement to the community fund to expand the reach of its projects.”
And as both air boards proudly proclaimed, this is the third major fine the Air District has assessed against Bay Area refineries this year. In February, the Air District announced a $20 million penalty against the Chevron refinery in Richmond, and earlier this month the Air District announced a $5 million penalty against the Marathon refinery in Martinez.
“Of the penalty amount, $80,800,000 shall be paid to BAAQMD, where it will be allocated according to BAAQMD’s recently adopted ‘Policy: Funding Community Benefits from Penalty Funds.'”
Notably, the Bay Area Air District’s core values are “environmental justice, equity, integrity, partnership, transparency, and trust.” In 2023, the Bay Area Air District had 421 Violations Resolved With Penalties totaling $3,403,279 in fines, according to their 2023 Annual Report.
This is how businesses in California are treated by the government – they are shaken down for million$ and treated as if they are criminal enterprises. They are litigated and indicted behind the closed doors of the air boards, and then in the court of public opinion with spiteful news articles.
The CARB has issued 82 such penalties this year… and 2024 is not over yet.
Here are several examples of CARB’s shakedown power:
- In September 2024, the California Air Resources Board reached a settlement with Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) Sierra Nevada Region… for failing to meet CARB’s reporting requirements: “An investigation conducted by CARB staff showed that WAPA failed to meet the applicable reporting requirements for Reporting Year 2021, as well as the applicable emission limits for Reporting Years 2020 and 2021. To settle the case, WAPA agreed to an average penalty of approximately $1,336 per day for 82 days of violation, resulting in a total settlement amount of $109,540. This total amount will be deposited into CARB’s Air Pollution Control Fund, which provides funding for projects and research to improve California’s air quality.Terms of the settlement also include a requirement for WAPA to comply with all other CARB regulations going forward. (emphasis the Globe – did WAPA even know about CARB’s reporting requirements?)
- In August 2024, the California Air Resources Board reached a settlement with Walt Disney Parks and Resorts U.S., Inc., with its principal location in Lake Buena Vista, Florida and amusement park in Anaheim, California, for small off-road engine equipment violations related to CARB’s Evaporative Emission Requirements for Off-Road Equipment. To settle the case, Disney agreed to the penalty of $450 per unit of noncompliant SORE equipment for a total penalty of $56,250. Disney elected to provide $28,125 to a Supplemental Environmental Project entitled Cleaner Air Greener Schools. The funds will be used to install indoor air quality sensors, air purifiers, and outdoor air quality sensors in 10 schools in Southern California.
- In June 2024, the California Air Resources Board reached a settlement with Guerlain, Inc. with its principal location in New York, New York, for the company’s violation of the Regulation for Reducing Emissions From Consumer Products. CARB staff conducted an investigation that revealed Guerlain sold, supplied, offered for sale or manufactured for use in California, personal fragrance products with modified codes, without providing an explanation of the codes to CARB before offering the products for sale in California. (The CARB nailed Louis Vuitton and Chanel for fragrance violations as well…)
- In March 2024, the California Air Resources Board reached a “mutual settlement” with Cummins Inc. for alleged violations of California’s certification and test procedure requirements. CARB said Cummins made undisclosed changes to approximately 120,000 engines in California after CARB had certified the engines for sale. In addition, roughly 2,000 Cummins engines had undisclosed auxiliary emission control devices that altered the emissions control system and resulted in emissions in excess of regulatory limits. Of the $46 million under the settlement, approximately $42 million will be paid to CARB, of which approximately $32 million is for penalties, and approximately $9.8 million is for mitigation of the full amount of excess nitrogen oxide emissions created by the noncompliant engines. Cummins has the option of using half the amount of the penalties to invest in zero emission heavy duty infrastructure in California. The settlement monies will go to the Air Pollution Control Fund to support CARB’s mobile source emissions control program and other CARB activities related to the control of air pollution. Cummins will also pay $4 million to the California Attorney General’s Office for unfair business practices and public nuisance.
- Lowe’s was fined $5,000 for selling uncertified indoor air cleaning devices – uncertified by CARB, that is.
- VP Racing was fined $610,000 for violating CARB’s Portable Fuel Containers and Spill-Proof Spouts Regulation. They had a spout CARB did not approve of and got a $600,000 fine for it.
- CARB even fined Sterling Ethanol $175,000 because its operational carbon intensity exceeded its certified carbon intensity. But that’s okay because “Of the total amount, $87,500 will be deposited into CARB’s Air Pollution Control Fund, which provides funding for projects and research to improve California’s air quality. The remaining amount of $87,500 will fund the Supplemental Environmental Project (SEP) entitled Cleaner Air Greener Schools, which will provide indoor air quality sensors, air purifiers, and outdoor air quality sensors for 5 classrooms in 10 schools in the Los Angeles region’s disadvantaged communities.”
The CARB members believe they are doing the work of the Environmental Gods – saving disadvantaged school children from carbon emissions. And “CARB is committed to racial equity and environmental justice.” In fact, “CARB is committed to prioritizing environmental justice in everything that we do.”
See? Doing the work of the Environmental Gods is “justice,” and very expensive.
The California Air Resources Board is an unelected board consisting of 16 members. 12 are appointed by the Governor, 4 are appointed by the Senate and Assembly (2 represent environmental justice communities), and they are accountable to no one. The CARB is supposed to be held accountable by the California Legislature, but that ship sailed long ago, facilitated by the 2006 passage of AB 32, California’s “Global Warming Solutions Act,” which greatly increased CARB’s power. Consequently, this omnipotent board illegally makes laws, illegally passes tax increases, investigates California businesses, decides which of the myriad CARB laws are being violated, and issues sizable fines and penalties (new laws and tax increases can only be passed by the California Legislature).
This shakedown of immense proportions, in many cases, is in coordination with local governments, and is being used to backfill local governments’ budget deficits, as the Globe reported in August with the City of Richmond and Chevron:
Early in the 2020’s, city lawmakers began looking at taxing oil refineries in the city, both to help bump up quality of life in Richmond, as well as solve city budget issues. Richmond currently faces a $34 million budget gap for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, with a refinery tax potentially raising Chevron’s taxes in the city close to $100 million a year. In May, the refinery tax proposal was approved by the Richmond City Council, making it a city-wide proposition and placing it on the November ballot.
This sounds like collusion, a secret understanding, often with intent to defraud. While Richmond passed the tax increase for the November ballot, shaking down large companies in case the tax increase isn’t passed by voters is collusion, as could be the case with the Chevron, Marathon, and Valero fines. The Bay Area Air District Board knows what it is doing – The Air District’s Board of Directors is made up of 24 locally elected City Council members and County Supervisors from 9 Bay Area counties. And as the CARB/BAAQMD statement said:
In May 2024, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District Board of Directors adopted a groundbreaking policy that directs a significant portion of penalty funds to the communities most impacted by air quality violations. Under this policy, most of these penalty funds will be reinvested in local projects specifically designed to reduce pollution and enhance public health.
California’s own Chevron Oil Company announced in August their corporate relocation to Houston Texas from the Bay Area, where it has been based since 1879. Chevron and now Phillips 66 are just the latest big business to flee the Golden State. How many more businesses will leave in 2025 because of The Great California Shakedown? It doesn’t matter which mafia-style state agency is perpetrating the extortion scheme on California businesses – The California Coastal Commission, CalEPA, CARB, ALRB, or local environmental justice-focused agencies, all hiding behind “climate change” woo-woo.
One commonality all of the 82 businesses shaken down by the CARB this year have: They all “fully cooperated with CARB’s investigation.”
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District board members:
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I hope to God Trump wins and send bus loads of FBI forensic accounts to California to find out what the bleep is going on.
This is a naked wealth distribution scam.
I hope to God Trump wins and send bus loads of FBI forensic accounts to California to find out what the bleep is going on. This is an in yourwealth distribution scam.
What ever happened to the Supreme Court ruling in regards to Chevron deference? An unelected board can not make law.
Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world.
Henry A. Kissinger
As I have previously mentioned, I have attended a handful of CARB public hearings. I have seen CARB staff lie about their data. I have seen board members so clueless about the specific item being discussed they have to ask staff how they are supposed to vote. I doubt there is a single person in their entire agency who gives a rat’s ass about the pain and suffering CARB inflicts on the people of California. CARB is evil. Period.
Thank you for putting all of their names and pictures in the article. Make them uncomfortable! One party rule leads to corruption. I would expect the bay area and LA County to lead the way since there are no checks on their conduct at this point. Does anybody think the Attorney General of California would investigate a board appointed by his buddy Gavin?
Jerry Brown invented CARB during his first 2 terms, they’ve been working their magic for decades, glad to see more than a handful finally getting fed up.
The corrupt worthless AG ROB BONTA and his pos buddy HAIRGEL NEWSOM need a REALITY CHECK. WE THE PEOPLE RECALLED NEWSOM, BUT HE PROCLAIMED HE BEAT IT AND JUST STAYED PUT. WE NEED TO PHYSICALLY REMOVE HIS LYING ASS, AS WELL AS BONTA AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE IDIOTS AND CHARGE THEM WITH LARCENY EMBEZZELMENT AND FRAUD ON THE HIGHEST SCALE. ABSOLUTE GARBAGE. GREAT ARTICLE THANK YOU!
absolutely agree with you, why isn’t chevron and Valero fighting to have them removed
This will sound redundant, but I’m going to throw it out there, Google; “Project 2030 Agenda” (specific wording) sponsored,endorsed,financed by the U.N. N.W.O. and the ultra rich; Soros, Gates, etc.
interesting reading of a International plot to control the population of the Planet, much of what I read, sounded very familiar to events unfolding in the news dailey!
Kamala Harris slipped in a interview a phrase that caught my attention “We must reduce the population” which is also mentioned in this “Agenda” that’s apparently, already been instituted!
Here is where these shakedown schemes are hatched, incubated and nurtured…….https://www.leadershipcouncilsmc.org/news/inspiration-connection-and-education-at-the-corpss-civics-day
Of course, “returned to the community” means given to Dem Party NGOs and cronies.
Further, of course, the community pays the fines in increased prices.
This is “Gangsta Government” coming to a country near you if the Dem Party steals the 2024 election.
It says a lot that ALL of the members are of Northern California. No representation AT ALL south of Campbell
“…Bay Area Air District’s core values are “environmental justice, equity, integrity, partnership, transparency, and trust.”
Which translates to, we’ll try to shake down these businesses for big bucks, take our haircut & distribute the rest to our “community organizers” and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) to spread the wealth to our low-information voting blocs who will vote Democrat for generations in grateful appreciation for our largesse…
Meanwhile, the rest of you TAXPAYING Californians can EFF OFF and PAY higher prices for all of our SUPPLY RESTRICTIONS that our actions will/can cause….
The Dems are hell-bent on driving prices to the heavens by restricting the supply of just about EVERYTHING, especially fuel, utilities and food products (livestock derived primarily, but also due to higher costs of transportation and production of local producers)
CA Democrats are EVIL, CORRUPT and beholden to “globalist” overlords…. VOTE ACCORDINGLY and try voting Republican – what do you have to lose???
Amazing that in 2024 I’m still seeing articles that are framing the fossil fuel industry as a ‘victim’. That industry considers this type of fine “the cost of doing business,” and for anyone in this chat that’s not a millionaire and lives in a blue collar neighborhood; the industry could care less if you vote Democrat or Republican or anything else. If there’s a profit to be made that involves poisoning you and your family, they’re going to poison you and your family and then hire a garrison of lawyers to escape accountability.
The standard we should really be holding businesses to is that If you can’t conduct business without poisoning the air/water/soil/food, you should not be allowed to conduct business. Period.
@JP. What type of business have you started, owned, run? Any at all?
JP ….. I worked for one of those refineries mentioned under a different name in the 1980s. They are not evil people and do their best to utilize modern technology to keep the refineries efficient and clean. It is a highly capital intensive business and profits were much less than most people think. In the oil industry, the profit is made in the crude production and not in the refining and marketing. Every three years, the refinery must be shut down for turn-a-round maintenance of the FCCU and other major equipment which can cost hundreds of millions of dollars. There are also new regulations in the next several years that are going to cost the refiners more billions of dollars. I predict that many of the remaining refiners will call it quits some time in the next few years when they need to take their refinery down for major maintenance and I don’t blame them. Refineries were barely economic before and now they are becoming really uneconomic.
JP, go live in a cave, life has risks, modern life, where we live a heck of a lot longer than cave dwellers, comes with a price.
Eventually there won’t be oil companies left in California because of the punitive shake downs by Newsom and the criminal Democrat mafia in the legislature along with their unelected stooges that they’ve placed into power in nebulous agencies like CARB? The state’s gas and oil inventories will plunge and Californians will be forced to pay outrageous prices for energy most of which will have to be imported into the state? No doubt that’s their plan? They’re probably getting payoffs from nefarious sources to destroy the state’s energy production and to allow the state’s coastline, hillsides and open fields to be blighted with inefficient windmills and solar panels made with slave labor using toxic materials and imported from countries like communist China? No doubt Newsom and the rest of your criminal Democrat mafia masters will continue to live like royalty in walled estates with 24-hour security and they’ll be able to travel freely in luxury vehicles while they’ll create conditions that will force average Californians to be herded into “15 minute cities” and live in coffin like rental apartments with restricted travel?
They need to be held accountable for destroying the state’s economy while they profit at the expense of average Californians. Their authoritarian and dictatorial tyranny needs to stop. Period.
In this case we ALL are the victims. These fines do nothing to help people, but absolutely harm everyone by making things unreasonably expensive. You completely missed the point.
while this is a good intention, you miss the point completely. which is not surprising because youre a brainless fucking liberal. shut up and get bent
Extremely grateful to Katy Grimes for this epic takedown EXPOSING these unelected dictatorial know-nothing bureaucratic creeps, many of them wealthy elitists, who seek, without conscience, and apparently at the direction and with the blessing of our own Gov. Gavin Gruesome, to IMPOVERISH Californians. These people are corrupt monsters. They must be stopped, and seems to me that full exposure will go a long way toward making that happen.
No doubt that $25 million dollar shake down penalty will be funneled and disappear into Democrat connected non-profits and NGOs rather than the being returned to the community and being used to “save” disadvantaged school children from nebulous “carbon emissions?” The unelected CARB members are just as much of criminal thugs as Newsom and the Democrat mafia in the legislature who installed them into power? How long before Valero, Marathon and other oil refiners flee California? Good on Katy Grimes for listing the Bay Area Air Quality Management District board members along with their mug shots so the public knows who to blame when other oil companies flee the state and gas prices spike as gas supplies dwindle?
The California Supreme Court decreed there in fact will be taxation without representation: Does anyone remember?
As there was no visceral reaction by the populace to the egregious and cavalier ruling the signal was sent Californians as a whole are lazy apathetic and docile lie downs.
I despise the Nazis that are on the CARB Board . They have been screwing Californians for years and years and years and appear to have no end in sight.
I despise the Nazis that are on the CARB Board . They have been screwing Californians for years and years and years and appear to have no end in sight.
So, who is going to stop this madness?
So when is it torches and ax handles time? The people cannot and probably will not take much more of this.