Chevron: Bringing lies straight to your mailbox

STRAW POLL! Who believes Chevron and Big Oil would do anything to try to fool Californians? Say, for example, by trying to convince people that their allies in the statehouse are environmental champs? Are your hands up?

The oil giant, which is responsible for plaguing the residents of Richmond, CA with a toxic refinery fire and harmful air pollution, has spent more than $1 million promoting Assemblywoman Cheryl Brown’s (D-San Bernardino) legislative record. Last week, that money helped fund a mailer that had (real) environmental groups up in arms for its characterization of Brown as an “environmental champion for us all.”

Cheryl Brown has been reported as a “business-friendly” Democrat who last year played a key role in the watering down of SB 350, a critical piece of a climate legislation that proposed a 50 percent reduction in fossil-fuel use by 2030.

The bigger question may be, why are the state’s biggest special interests spending so much on one little legislative seat? While it’s par for the course for Chevron, who threw down $3 million on the local Richmond election, the LA Times Editorial Board states it’s “lamentable that big-moneyed interests overwhelm local ones.”