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

. 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