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Chevron will pay record fines for oil spills in California
How inflation of 10 items in Riverside compares to the rest of the US
By Janet Wilson, The Desert Sun, and ProPublica
By Stacker
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he past two years of inflation have hit home for all Americans, but it hasn’t hit the same everywhere. Inflation typically moves in unison across regions, and the same has been true for the rampant inflation recently. However, there are slight differences in price changes across regional economies, which become more pronounced at the metro level. In Riverside, annual inflation was 2.9% in January, compared to 3.1% nationally. Changes in housing prices often drive differences in inflation in various parts of the country. The U.S. West and South have grown their populations most in recent years, creating more demand for housing and, in turn, higher increases in the cost of housing and of goods overall, according to an analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Some other goods aren’t easy to transport or can be more susceptible to supply chain disruptions for certain regions. For instance, when gas prices go up, transporting out-of-season produce to metros with colder temperatures becomes more expensive. In contrast, metros in warmer climates may be able to continue growing that produce locally and wouldn’t see the same price escalations. Electricity costs can vary widely, too, depending on the primary energy sources used in different metros and the global and environmental influences they face.
Chevron oil refinery in Richmond, Calif. | Photo by Scott Hess CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED
This story was originally published by ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox
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il giant Chevron has agreed to pay a recordsetting $13 million to two California agencies for past oil spills, but some of the company’s spills are ongoing. The fines, announced March 20, come more than three years after an investigation by The Desert Sun and ProPublica found that oil companies are profiting from illegal spills and that oversight of the industry by California’s oil and gas division was lax. At least one of Chevron’s spills is still running 21 years after it began in a Kern County oilfield, although a state spokesperson said it has been reduced by 98% “from its peak.” The amount spilled from the site, dubbed GS-5, is larger than the Exxon Valdez disaster. The crude collected from GS-5 generated an estimated $11.6 million in just three years, The Desert Sun and ProPublica found. In fact,
rather than stopping potentially deadly inland spills, known as surface expressions, oil companies have routinely tried to contain them with netting or pieces of metal and used more than 100 of them as unpermitted oil production sites in Kern and Santa Barbara counties. This week’s announcement stopped short of saying GS-5 and other ongoing spills must be stopped, as required under state law. Instead, officials said the settlement “creates a framework for managing the spills with State oversight,” and “Chevron agrees to continue monitoring the site with Department of Conservation oversight.” No specific sites were named. In follow-up emails and a phone call, spokespeople for the state said the fines cover the first phase of the Cymric spill, in which a river of thick crude flowed down a natural watershed. Chevron for several years denied it
posed a risk to health and the environment, and the company fought a $1.6 million fine imposed by state regulators. The penalties also cover dozens of smaller spills that killed or damaged wildlife and habitat. The new fines, which will be paid to the Department of Conservation and the Department of Fish and Wildlife, are unprecedented for the agencies but are minuscule for Chevron, a multinational that reported $2.3 billion in earnings in the fourth quarter of 2023. Spills in Chevron’s Cymric oil field had gushed more than 6 million gallons of wastewater and crude as of last June, but the settlement covers only 2 million gallons spilled from unidentified Kern County Chevron operations. A spokesperson for the See Chevron Page 28
Department of Fish and Wildlife said in an email that the fines covered the first phase of the Cymric incident that the agency’s oil spill response teams worked on from June 2019 through April 2020, totaling 1.2 million gallons, about 70% wastewater and 30% oil. As for the decadeslong GS-5 spill, Department of Conservation spokesperson Jacob Roper said: “As mitigation continues, less oil finds its way to the surface. Mitigation measures include injecting water underground to improve ground stability, sealing subsurface leak paths and removing fluids in shallow areas before they can reach the surface.” (The injected fluid gradually cools hot steam so as to not create more boiling spills.) At the spill’s peak in 2019, Roper noted, about
See Inflation Page 28
Female inmates file suit related to acts by ‘sexual predator’ ex-deputy By Paul J. Young, City News Service
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emale inmates sexually exploited by an ex-Riverside County sheriff’s deputy responsible for supervising them on a home detention program are federally suing the county, sheriff’s administrators and others for alleged civil rights violations, it was announced Thursday. “Deputy (Christian) Heidecker sexually preyed upon the plaintiff(s) and took advantage of (their) vulnerabilities,” according to a civil complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Riverside. “Heidecker’s conduct clearly shocks the conscience.” Heidecker, 32, of Menifee, pleaded guilty in February to four counts each of extortion, a public official seeking bribes and witness intimidation, as well as one count of a detention officer perpetrating a sexual assault. Superior Court Judge Charles Rogers accepted the plea over the objections of prosecutors, who opposed the stipulated term of five years in state prison for being too low, but See ‘Sexual predator’ Page 02