A major American energy company is leaving California for Texas after enduring years of “adversarial” state policies.
Chevron, one of the largest oil companies in the U.S., announced Friday that it is moving its corporate headquarters out of California and will relocate the center of its operations to Houston, Texas. The company’s decision to leave California follows years of aggressive environmental policymaking from California Democrats that hurt Chevron’s business.
“The company’s headquarters will move from San Ramon, California, to Houston, Texas,” the firm wrote in a press release announcing the move. “Chevron Chairman and CEO, Mike Wirth, and Vice Chairman, Mark Nelson, will move to Houston before the end of 2024 to co-locate with other senior leaders and enable better collaboration and engagement with executives, employees, and business partners.” (RELATED: What Has California’s War On Fossil Fuels Actually Accomplished?)
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Chevron was the lone major oil company based in California before it decided to move its headquarters to Texas after spending 140 years based in the Golden State. The company had already started to shift investment and operations out of the state — due in part to California’s “adversarial” energy policies — before it announced that it is moving its headquarters, according to Forbes.
OILDALE, CA – JULY 7: Oil pumpjacks line the horizon along the Kern River in Chevron’s Kern River Oil Field, the fifth largest field in the United States, located just north and east of Bakersfield, is viewed on July 7, 2021, in Oildale, California. Due to a lack of rain and snow in the Sierra Nevada during the past two years, California is experiencing one of the driest and hottest periods of weather in recorded history, forcing municipalities and farmers in the Central Valley to rethink their uses of water. As of this date, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a water “State of Emergency” for most state counties and has asked residents to reduce their use of water by 15%. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)
OILDALE, CA – JULY 7: Oil pumpjacks line the horizon in Chevron’s Kern River Oil Field, the fifth largest in the United States, located just north and east of Bakersfield, is viewed on July 7, 2021, in Oildale, California. Due to a lack of rain and snow in the Sierra Nevada during the past two years, California is experiencing one of the driest and hottest periods of weather in recorded history, forcing municipalities and farmers in the Central Valley to rethink their uses of water. As of this date, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a water “State of Emergency” for most state counties and has asked residents to reduce their use of water by 15%. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)
Some of Chevron’s senior leaders have wanted to move out of California for some time, but the company stayed put until Friday in large part because of its history in California and its existing assets in the state, according to The Wall Street Journal.
A Chevron gas station sign contrasts against a clear blue sky in West Sacramento, California, July 7, 2024. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
“We believe California has a number of policies that raise costs, that hurt consumers, that discourage investment and ultimately we think that’s not good for the economy in California and for consumers,” Wirth told the Journal.
In the first week of 2024, Chevron announced that it wrote down its existing interests in California by more than $4 billion thanks in large part to the state’s onerous environmental regulations.
“This announcement is the logical culmination of a long process that has repeatedly been foreshadowed by Chevron,” a spokesperson for Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “We’re proud of California’s place as the leading creator of clean energy jobs – a critical part of our diverse, innovative, and vibrant economy.”
A general view shows oil pumping jacks and drilling pads at the Kern River Oil Field where the principle operator is the Chevron Corporation in Bakersfield, California on July 28, 2015. The field is the third largest in California, fifth largest in the United States and relies mainly on the steam injection method to extract the crude oil. (Photo by MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images)
MCKITTRICK, CA – MARCH 28: A Chevron oil field along Highway 58 is a hub of activity and appears to be pumping oil and natural gas at near full production on March 28, 2017, near McKittrick, California. Oil and natural gas production have been joined by solar panels and wind turbines to provide large scale electrical energy for the entire Western United States. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)
California is considered to be on the leading edge of climate policy, according to Stateline. Apart from regulations on oil and gas production, the state has pushed aggressive electric vehicle and truck rules, pursued a climate lawsuit against Chevron and other oil giants alleging that they deliberately attempted to deceive the public on climate change and enacted a landmark corporate emissions disclosure requirement.
“For well over two decades now, politicians like Governor Newsom have hammered California’s conventional energy producers, both large and small, with excessive taxes, regulations, and threats of profit taking,” Tom Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, told the DCNF in January. “Many companies have already moved out of the state, along with hundreds of thousands of residents as a result of these and other harmful policies … like a cap on profit margins, that hurt consumers by making conventional energy investments uneconomic. These types of policies have outsourced jobs to other states and increased California’s reliance on oil and electricity imports — all with little or no environmental benefit.”
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