California Bills to hold ‘Big Oil’ Responsible for Disasters Sponsored by Notorious Leftist Groups

California Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced a bill in February to hold “Big Oil” responsible for natural disasters in California. Senator Wiener is blaming the oil and gas industry for natural disasters – disasters that should have been mitigated – at least partially – by the State of California.

Senate Bill 222 would allow the state FAIR Plan, insurance companies, and individuals to sue oil and gas companies for wildfire damages. Sen. Wiener proclaimed that “The fossil fuel industry is fueling climate change,” and then announced Senate Bill 222 to force the oil and gas industry to pay for all disasters in the state – and in doing so, will allow insurance companies and victims of fires, floods, rain and sleet, wind events, mudslides, and earthquakes to sue fossil fuel companies for damages, the Globe reported in January.

SB 222 bill analysis says that “this bill is sponsored by the Center for Climate Integrity, California Environmental Voters, and Extreme Weather Survivors. It is supported by a number of environmental and consumer advocacy groups, including Consumer Watchdog and Sierra Club California. It is opposed by a wide variety of business associations, labor groups, and oil and gas representatives, including the Western States Petroleum Association and the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California.

“Sponsoring Wiener’s bill is the Rockefeller-backed Center for Climate Integrity, which brags that they are “Exposing Big Oil’s Lies & Demanding Accountability.” The Center for Climate Integrity is a Washington DC non-profit. …Wondering how much funding they have received from USAID…

As the Globe reported in February, the Center for Climate Integrity claims, that “California voters support recovering insurance losses from Big Oil, new poll finds.”

Really? What is this new poll?

Why it’s a poll conducted by the Center for Climate Integrity and Data for Progress of 656 likely voters.

“From January 28 to 30, 2025, Data for Progress and the Center for Climate Integrity conducted a survey of 656 likely voters in California, including an oversample of Los Angeles County, using web panel respondents,” Center for Climate Integrity says.

See how easy that is – just create your own poll to support your position. Who knew?

Sen. Wiener’s bill didn’t make it out of its first committee, so while it appears to be killed, Sen. Wiener was granted reconsideration, meaning it’s not dead yet.

These are the same Democrats who killed bills this week which would have suspended the Low Carbon Fuel Standard gas tax increase of 65 cents a gallon from going into effect, on top of the gas tax increase July 1st. So they actually voted to allow a ginormous 65-cent hike in gas prices starting next year.

However, on top of gas tax increases, there is another lurking bill, AB 1243, to create the “Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act of 2025.”

The purpose of this bill is to blame the oil and gas industry for “climate change” caused by greenhouse gas emissions, and then saddle the industry with funding a Superfund to pay for the cost to mitigate the ravages of climate change. The bill analysis explains – I’ve broken out the statements with bullet points [Emphasis the Globe]:

• this bill would establish the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund.
• The bill would task the California Environmental Protection Agency with studying the emissions of various covered entities
• then assessing damages on those entities related to the proportional share of emissions those entities caused.
• Proposed amendments will cap this cost recovery at no more than five percent of a responsible party’s cumulative net income for the covered period.
• The bill then directs those funds to be reinvested into California communities to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

AB 1243 is also stalled, stuck  in a committee, likely because even a few Democrat lawmakers in California know in their hearts that this bill, and Senator Wiener’s bill, are immeasurable, incalculable (not that they care, but it makes them look bad).

Does CalEPA really get to legally accuse California’s legally operating oil and gas producers and refiners of “damage caused by covered fossil fuel emissions?” What damage? We know what they really want is what they say aloud: “to require fossil fuel polluters to pay their fair share of the damage caused by covered fossil fuel emissions.”

Bill analysis says “This bill is co-sponsored by the Center for Biological Diversity, California Environmental Voters, and the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy California, and is supported by a sweeping coalition of environmental advocates, labor organizations, environmental justice advocates, some local governments, and immigrant advocates. The proponents of the bill highlight the massive socialized costs this state has already had to absorb to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change.”

This is an attempt to create another political slush fund – Superfund size.

If the bill really seeks to hold oil and gas companies financially accountable for emissions that cause climate change, does it stop with the oil and gas industry? I’m betting the agriculture industry is next on the chopping block. And why stop there – automobile manufacturers will be deemed Superfund polluters as well. And gas appliance makers. And paint manufacturers, and commercial printers, and asphalt companies, and cement manufacturers…

The authors of this bill are trying to bankrupt the oil and gas industry, and put them all out of business, at least in California. These are the authors of AB 1243:

Assemblywoman Dawn Addis (Coauthors: Assembly Members Connolly, Garcia, Haney, Kalra, Pellerin, Rogers, Schultz, and Ward)
(Coauthors: Senators Allen, Gonzalez, Menjivar, Stern, and Wiener)

Remember those names.

Tellingly, bill analysis says the quiet part aloud:

Dating back to the Obama Administration, federal officials have attempted to quantify the social cost of carbon emissions.

The social cost of carbon reflects the estimated cost of the damage done by each additional ton of carbon emissions.

In 2022, the Biden Administration updated the social cost of carbon emissions to note that each ton of carbon emitted cost $51. (Asdourian & Wessel, What is the social cost of carbon?, The Brookings Institute (Mar. 14, 2023). Given that the United States emits 6,343 million metric tons of carbon annually the social cost of these emissions is staggering.

This bill recognizes that for most of the last century the cost of carbon emissions has been socialized while the profits associated with oil and gas productions have been privatized.

In the past decade, this state has witnessed horrific wildfire, floods, and drought, all made worse by climate change.

What? “Wildfire, floods, and drought, all made worse by climate change?” Where are Democrats getting their data and facts? The EPA, the Brookings Institute, the World Economic Forum. Bill analysis says:

The World Economic Forum notes that between 2000 and 2019 climate change cost the global economy $143 billion annually. (Paige Bennett, Climate change is costing the world $16 million per hour: study, World Economic Forum (Oct. 12, 2023). More troubling is the fact that by 2050, the World Economic Forum estimates the annual cost of carbon emissions will exceed $1.7 trillion.

The same World Economic Forum which recently launched an investigation into its founder, Klaus Schwab, alleging misconduct? The same World Economic Forum that hosts the Davos gathering where a bunch of billionaires and uber elites plot to run the world and force all of us to eat bugs? The same World Economic Forum that Klaus Schwab told world leaders to give over full control of their countries or risk losing power and influence? The same World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders program self-appointed uber elite Gavin Newsom graduated from?

The California Governor and Democrats aren’t working on behalf of Californians. Their real bosses are listed above.