Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) is a non-profit
trade association
A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific Industry (economics), industry. An industry tra ...
that represents companies that account for the bulk of
petroleum exploration
Hydrocarbon exploration (or oil and gas exploration) is the search by petroleum geologists and geophysicists for deposits of hydrocarbons, particularly petroleum and natural gas, in the Earth#Crust, Earth using petroleum geology.
Exploration m ...
,
production
Production may refer to:
Economics and business
* Production (economics)
* Production, the act of manufacturing goods
* Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services)
* Production as a stati ...
,
refining
{{Unreferenced, date=December 2009
Refining (also perhaps called by the mathematical term affining) is the process of purification of a (1) substance or a (2) form. The term is usually used of a natural resource that is almost in a usable form, b ...
, transportation and marketing in the six western states of
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
,
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
,
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
,
Oregon
Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
and
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
. Founded in 1907, WSPA is the oldest petroleum trade association in the United States of America. WSPA's headquarters are located in Sacramento, California. Additional WSPA locations include offices in Torrance; Santa Barbara; Bakersfield; Scottsdale, Arizona and Olympia, Washington.
The current WSPA president is Catherine Reheis-Boyd.
Members of the WSPA include
Aera Energy LLC
Aera Energy LLC (or simply Aera) is a natural gas, oil exploration and production company started as a joint venture between Shell plc (through Shell USA) and Mobil (which later merged to form ExxonMobil). Headquartered in Bakersfield, Cal ...
,
Alaska Tanker Company
Keystone Shipping Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is a major shipping and transportation company. Keystone Shipping Company operates a fleet of ships for both dry bulk cargo and tankers. Since World War I, the Keystone Shipping Company has ...
,
Berry Petroleum,
BP, Big West of California LLC,
Chevron Corporation
Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California (shortened to Socal or CalSo), it is headquartered in S ...
,
ConocoPhillips
ConocoPhillips Company is an American multinational corporation engaged in hydrocarbon exploration and production. It is based in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas.
The company has operations in 15 countries and has production in ...
,
ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 30, ...
,
Lloyd Properties
Lloyd, Lloyd's, or Lloyds may refer to:
People
* Lloyd (name), a variation of the Welsh word ' or ', which means "grey" or "brown"
** List of people with given name Lloyd
** List of people with surname Lloyd
* Lloyd (singer) (born 1986), Americ ...
,
Navajo Refining Co.,
Noble Energy
Noble Energy, Inc. was a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration headquartered in Houston, Texas. In October 2020, the company was acquired by Chevron Corporation.
The company was known as Noble Affiliates, Inc. until 2002.
As of December ...
,
Olympic Pipeline Company,
Pacific Operators Offshore
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
,
Plains All American
Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. is a master limited partnership engaged in pipeline transport, marketing, and storage of liquefied petroleum gas and petroleum in the United States and Canada. It owns interests in of pipelines, storage capacity ...
,
SeaRiver Maritime
SeaRiver Maritime is a privately held subsidiary wholly owned by ExxonMobil. The company was formed in the early 1990s by Exxon when it spun off its maritime operations into the new company following the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989.
In 1994 ...
,
Seneca Resources Corp.,
Shell
Shell may refer to:
Architecture and design
* Shell (structure), a thin structure
** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses
** Thin-shell structure
Science Biology
* Seashell, a hard o ...
,
Tesoro
Tesoro or El Tesoro may refer to:
People
* Ashley Tesoro (born 1983), American actress, model, and singer
** Tesoro Ministry Foundation, a charity
*Donya Tesoro (born 1991), a Filipina politician
*Giuliana Tesoro (1921–2002), Italian-born Ame ...
,
U.S. Oil and Refining
U.S. Oil & Refining Co. is an oil refinery located in the tideflats of Tacoma, Washington, Tacoma, Washington (state), Washington.
History
USOR (U.S. Oil & Refining Co.) began in 1952 as Pacific Oil & Refining Co., a privately held corporation. ...
,
Valero Energy Corporation
Valero Energy Corporation is a Fortune 500 international manufacturer and marketer of transportation fuels, other petrochemical products, and power. It is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, United States. Throughout the United States and Can ...
,
Venoco
Venoco, Inc. was a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration. It primarily operated in the Monterey Formation in California. In 2017, the company filed bankruptcy and was liquidated.
History
The company was founded in September 1992 by Timothy M ...
, and
Western Refining
Western Refining, Inc., is a Texas-based Fortune 200 and Global 2000 crude oil refiner and marketer operating primarily in the Southwestern, North-Central and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. Western Refining (WNR) has been publicly tr ...
.
Lobbying
WSPA is routinely one of the largest lobbying forces in the state of California. In 2014, WSPA spent $8.9 million lobbying - nearly double what it spent in the previous year. WSPA spent $4.67 million in 2013. The increase happened during a push by WSPA and other oil and gas industry to roll back transportation fuels coming under California's cap-and-trade program under the
Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006
The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, or Assembly Bill (AB) 32, is a California State Law that fights global warming by establishing a comprehensive program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from all sources throughout the state. AB32 was c ...
.
Controversy
In November 2014, a leaked PowerPoint from Western States Petroleum Association revealed it "activates" and funds front groups that are designed to weaken California's climate change law
Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006
The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, or Assembly Bill (AB) 32, is a California State Law that fights global warming by establishing a comprehensive program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from all sources throughout the state. AB32 was c ...
.
The front groups, which included groups like the California Drivers Alliance and Fed Up at the Pump, appeared to be grassroots groups representing consumer interests, while WSPA spent millions on PR campaigns to further the oil industry's policy agenda.
References
External links
* {{official, http://www.wspa.org
Organizations based in Sacramento, California
Trade associations based in the United States