Oil Industry Spends Thousands on Local Bay Area Election in City With No Refineries

The oil industry is spending thousands of dollars on a local City Council race in an apparent effort to unseat an incumbent who leads the regional air district’s board.

An independent expenditure committee funded by Chevron, Phillips 66, Marathon Petroleum and PBF Energy has spent $23,545 supporting Belmont Councilmember Tom McCune, according to campaign disclosure forms filed with the city as of Tuesday.

Though the oil industry is known to spend big in election season, a council race in a small Peninsula city with no significant oil operations might seem an odd target.

But McCune’s main competitor for the District 4 seat — after Belmont recently transitioned from citywide, at-large elections to district contests — is fellow Councilmember Davina Hurt, the chair of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District board of directors. She also sits on the California Air Resources Board. Both agencies regulate refineries.

The oil industry’s spending on the race is not about policy in Belmont, Hurt said.

“They want to silence a voice on the air district board,” she said in an interview. “Big Oil is leaning in and trying to change a local election where there are no refineries.”

In the last 10 years, oil companies with refineries in the Bay Area have spent large amounts on local contests in the cities where they operate. In 2014, Chevron spent $3 million to support candidates in the Richmond City Council election. An independent expenditure committee funded in large part by Valero spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on City Council elections in Benicia in 2018 and 2020.

But Belmont, a city of 26,000 people, has no oil refining infrastructure.

Instead, the industry’s apparent interest in the race is Hurt, who was one of 19 air district board members who voted in 2021 in favor of one of the most stringent refinery pollution control rules in California history. Chevron and PBF gave up their legal attack on the new rule earlier this year, leading to a settlement worth tens of millions of dollars.

When the air district announced the deal, the first quote came from Hurt. “The historic penalties and successful defense of our life-saving Rule 6-6 are a win for air quality in the Bay, especially those living in the Richmond and Martinez-area communities,” she said in the agency’s press release in February.

In the last month, the oil industry super PAC — officially labeled the Committee for Jobs and the Economy, Sponsored by Energy Companies and Building Trades Unions Representing Working Men and Women — began sending out flyers in support of McCune, describing him as experienced, pragmatic and collaborative.

“I knew nothing about the mailers until they started arriving in mailboxes,” McCune said in an email.

“I did not request them, did not approve them, and did not pay for them,” he said, emphasizing that he has not received any money, support or endorsements from the political action committee.

The phone number on the committee’s most recent political filings is the main number for Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk, a Sacramento-based law firm that has represented Republican and industry-based interests.

Neither the firm nor the four oil companies funding the committee responded to requests for comment.

The current election marks the first time the committee has filed campaign disclosures with the city of Belmont, according to City Clerk Jozi Plut.

McCune does not champion oil industry interests on his campaign statement filed with the city or his campaign website.

“I think clean air is extremely important and that clean air regulations are a very important part of making it happen,” he said in an email, emphasizing that he and Hurt have not compared policies on energy and the environment.

McCune sits on the board of directors for Peninsula Clean Energy, a so-called community choice aggregator that provides electricity from renewable sources to San Mateo County customers.

“There simply isn’t enough new solar and wind generation capacity coming online fast enough to achieve 100% renewable and 100% carbon-free electrical generation as fast as we would like,” he said. “I believe we will get to that future state … but it is taking longer than desired.”

The oil industry, air quality and climate change have not been issues in the campaign so far. The San Mateo Daily Journal’s report on a debate between Hurt and McCune focused mainly on housing, traffic congestion, youth sports and economic development. The forum touched on expanding electric vehicle and home electric appliance opportunities, but the candidates’ positions didn’t seem far apart.

Hurt said that while she and McCune had slight differences on climate policies, a lot of their priorities are similar.

The Belmont City Council race is one of two contests on the Peninsula the oil industry group has poured money into.

The committee, which is also funded by several unions that represent refinery workers, has spent close to $60,000 in support of East Palo Alto Councilmember Lisa Gauthier in her race against East Palo Alto Mayor Antonio Lopez for a seat on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, according to campaign reports filed with the county.

In 2022, the same committee spent $95,000 backing San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller.

Industry groups are increasingly pouring money into local elections, according to Melissa Michelson, a political scientist at Menlo College.

“In a smaller election, the amount of money being spent is much smaller, so your money goes farther,” Michelson said.

And the transition away from at-large elections to district contests amplifies that trend. That’s especially true in Belmont’s Council District 4, which is home to just 4,505 registered voters in a residential area in the hills near Interstate 280, according to Mark Church, San Mateo County’s chief elections officer.

“For an outside group, it’s such a bargain to get involved because it’s just a few thousand votes,” Michelson said.