t will be interesting to see how the Chevron sign campaign works out for the company, on this busy Memorial Day weekend.
Posted by Leslie Eastman
For years, I hoped the petroleum energy giants would push back against global warming activists, eco-nuts who believed carbon dioxide was toxic, and regulation-mad bureaucrats.
However, these corporations were content to try to negotiate with these extremists. This encouraged the extremists in California to double down, as there is no effective check on their lunatic policy-making ideas.
For example, Gavin Newsom signed into law a measure ordering energy producers to stockpile gasoline, despite pushback from industry. Then, the oil companies began to see the handwriting on the wall and made a strategic retreat.
Phillips 66 terminated operations at its Los Angeles-area refinery in the fourth quarter of 2025. Chevron moved its headquarters to Texas, citing high taxes and burdensome regulations. Valero Energy Corporation, which announced plans to close its Benicia oil refinery (located just northeast of San Francisco, in 2026), has just been fined for “air quality violations” to the tune of $3.25 million.
However, Chevron has taken a new approach… this time directly targeting the regulators and politicians who view its firm as evil and a cash cow deserving to be pilfered.
Drivers across California, including here in the Central Valley, may be noticing new signs posted at some Chevron gas stations pointing the finger at Sacramento for high gas prices.
The signs carry messages like: “Sacramento policies did this. Now, you pay more.”
Others saying, “California has the highest gas taxes and fees in America.”
The signs also include a QR code customers can scan for more information.
Chevron says the campaign is meant to explain why Californians are paying some of the highest gas prices in the country.
Chevron is letting customers know in California that it’s not Donald Trump causing the insane gas prices in the state, it’s California Democrats
Chevron just added these new signs to their pumps educating customers, “Sacramento policies did this. Now you pay more”
“California… pic.twitter.com/MzIYrzjaBz
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) May 21, 2026
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Press Office was quick to respond with snark.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is in a spat with a major oil company over who is to blame for the state’s high gas prices, with the Democratic governor’s office urging drivers not to fill up at Chevron stations over Memorial Day weekend.
“Pro tip: unbranded gas comes from the same refineries, storage tanks, and pipelines, and it meets the same state standards to keep your engine running clean,” Newsom’s office posted Thursday on X. “Big Oil is already making billions off Trump’s Iran War; don’t let them rip you off even more by overpaying for the brand name.”
Newsom’s office cited an analysis by a group within the state’s energy commission, which oversees the oil and gas industry, that found that Chevron averaged more than 60 to 80 cents per gallon above unbranded alternatives.
However, the response really wasn’t what Newsom was expecting:
Thanks for the tip: I’ll be sure to spend some extra money at @Chevron this weekend! #Buycott pic.twitter.com/wkxuLPCAlL
— Tom Kattman (@TomKattman) May 22, 2026
Then the U.S. Gas and Oil Association bolstered Chevron’s position with feedback of its own.
“Pro tip: Don’t take Pro tips from a Politician who hasn’t driven himself anywhere since 2004,” the group wrote in a post on X Thursday that had gotten nearly 100,000 views.
The association’s president doubled down on the criticism in a statement to The California Post.
“It’s interesting how the politicians who are picked up every morning by a black SUV are experts on gas prices but always fail to recognize the impact their bad decisions actually have on gas prices,” Tim Stewart said.
The group had been referencing Newsom’s taxpayer-funded drivers, who ferry the governor between events across the state and leave him out of touch with everyday commuters.
“Chevron works hard to help educate Californians about Sacramento’s energy and tax policies. These adversarial policies have resulted in California losing nearly 18% of its refining capacity in less than a year,” a Chevron spokesperson told The California Post.
“Most Chevron-branded gas stations in California are independently owned and operated. Attacking California’s small businesses like this is deeply unfair and irresponsible. We urge Sacramento to take energy policy seriously and stop making life expensive for California drivers,” they added.
Pro tip:
Don’t take Pro tips from a Politician who hasn’t driven himself anywhere since 2004. https://t.co/3m6Rk7I40u
— US Oil & Gas Association (@US_OGA) May 22, 2026
The growing tension between California regulators and oil companies underscores a disconnect between policymakers and the realities of energy demand, with producers continuing to supply a critical, everyday resource even as they face increasingly burdensome and counterproductive regulations.
As companies push back and scale operations in response to these policies, they are highlighting the essential role they play in keeping the state moving and raising important questions about whether current regulatory approaches are driving up costs and undermining energy reliability rather than supporting practical, balanced solutions.
It will be interesting to see how the Chevron sign campaign works out for the company, on this busy Memorial Day weekend.
Google News Search on “Chevron” finds:
“Newsom to California drivers: Avoid Chevron for gas . . .”
California drivers’ response, “Bite me! We’re leaving this sh**h**e and going somewhere else. You can deal with the illegals, and the sea of sewage in your streets.”
That’s what I just did 2 months ago. After 42 years in So Cal, I moved to Virginia. Love it. It took me less than 30 minutes to get my new driver’s license! That’s 2 hours shorter than any CA DMV visit I ever had. I could go on…
You should have moved to W.Va to avoid SpazzBerger and save even more money.
-Signed, a long time VA resident hating his current government
Glad to see the ‘industry’ finally understanding that there’s no placating the Left. H/t to Spencer Pratt for showing them that they can (and should) bypass the establishment’s media hacks to get their message out.
Pratt is on a roll. His newest viral ad uses a pressure washer and stencil to ‘clean’ his newest campaign message in clean white concrete on otherwise filthy black sidewalks. Brilliant. Not just the internet—his volunteers are doing it for real all over LA.
Soon I expect, the DOD (or is it W) will be compelled to buy one or more of the shutdown California refineries and oil fields, start them up, and limit their customers to the West coast parts of the Navy, Army, Air Force and Coast Guard.
What, leaving out Space Force?
Aren’t they in Colorado?
The governor’s office apparently doesn’t know what Techron is. In any case, Chevron does make premier gasoline grades that warrant a higher price for quality over unbranded products.
Still it would appear that they did some searching to find the largest pricing difference between brands.
Around here (Auburn), Shell is the high-priced brand. There’s one station in particular consistently 80 cents a gallon more expensive than the no-name generic right next door.
There used to be differences between gasoline brands, primarily in the sulphur and olefin content. But regulations have tightened up so much that the only difference that matters anymore is the additive package which varies from EPA minimum to branded proprietary packages like Techron. So long as you are buying a top tier gasoline even the difference is additive packages does not matter much.
Yes. But those ten words are paramount. The “savings” of “cheap” gas are a “pay me later” proposition that will cost a ton more than you ever “saved.”
In case AGWiNS scared anyone else:
“Depending on your specific location, your local Costco may source its gasoline from major brands like Chevron, Shell, or ExxonMobil. Once purchased, the fuel is branded as Kirkland Signature™ Gasoline.”
I Love It. Thank you Chevron. Here is to hoping that every service station in the State will do the same thing. These politicians are only looking for methods to line their pockets. They don’t care in any small matter for any California resident or visitor to the State.
I hope the writing is on the wall and EVERY democrat is removed and California can again become the Golden State.
Just think how much money the State could have been making selling oil and natural gas these last few months.
I mentioned this to a democrat the other week, “Did you know that California has as much gas and oil in the ground as Texas?” research it yourself.
True. The problem is the Monterey shale cannot economically be horizontally drilled and fracked because it is folded and faulted, unlike, say, Texas’ Permian basin shales. A few years ago EIA revised its Monterey shale recoverable oil estimate down by 96%, belatedly noticing this little geological detail
Even if that were not a problem, Rud, I doubt the CA government would allow it.
California has a one party government.
What did you expect from that? A workers paradise?
One party governments are always about equal sharing of the misery.
Equal sharing for the masses. Those who run the government always make out like bandets.
paraphrased line from Nick Nolte, as the King, in ‘Farewell to the King’:
‘Yes, I was a communist, but not anymore … that’s where the pigs shit.’
Dig that minimum wage! And all those quick becoming unemployed as a result!
And the moral of the story is?
The “minimum wage” IS ZERO.
It’s about damn time that energy companies fought back instead of giving what Ayn Rand called ” the sanction of the victim.”
Have to wonder if the IPCC realized how fraught with peril their discrediting (officially, that is, since it’s been getting wronger the longer it went) RCP8.5 was?
This campaign is just another ‘feature’ of that action. When everything they said for decades has been disproven by reality, it opens the way for the victims of the hoax to – finally – push back if they have the resources and motivation.
Resources, they got. Now they have grounds that even believers of the hoax cannot assail. Or, at least, not without facing the absurdity of their attacks.
The only thing Newsom cares about is this. Will bashing the oil companies earn him votes or cost him votes? This includes his supposed ambitions in 2028. Any effect on people is irrelevant. You can’t make Gavin care about anything except his personal ambition.
I prefer “Sparkle Beach Ken.”
😄😆😅🤣😂
Chevron, et al., are no longer intimidated by Newsom and the cast of clowns in Sacramento. I think they are fully prepared to leave the state completely.
they need a several hundred billboards lining major freeways within the state to also run the “Posters” on.
Gavin Newsom remains the odds-on favorite to become the Democrat’s 2028 nominee for president.
— Newsom’s performance as governor of California is in close alignment with the politics and the far-left ideologies of today’s mainstream Democrats. These mainstream Democrats view his tenure as Governor of California as an unqualified success.
— Newsom is a glib speaker who can voice the most preposterous of policy narratives while still appearing to be completely competent and rational to low information voters.
— He is a heartthrob to liberal white women voters, who tend to show up at the polls in large numbers.
— As a product of Hollywood culture, Newsom has an actor’s sense for what an audience is thinking and can adapt his style and his presentation to fit the biases of any particular group he appears in front of.
— He has the money and the organization of the Pelosi political machine and its rich Silicon Valley moguls behind him.
Compare Gavin Newsom to any of his potential rivals for the Democrat’s 2028 presidential nomination and he comes out well ahead of them on every consideration which counts in today’s far-left Democratic Party politics.
In a word, he’s their guy for 2028. (Or so I think, anyway.)
I tend to agree with you. He’s a male version of Kamala Harris. He’s much more glib than she is. But same package containing nothing of substance.
If the Demonrats pick Newscum, are they going to do any better than Harris did? Unlikely.
But what this shows is the complete absence of any Demonrat candidate who has any appeal to the mainstream voter, men or women. DEI issues, global warming issues, mean nothing to most Americans. The Demonrats have seemingly learned nothing from getting their party smashed under Hildabitch and Kamalala.
But we shall see if they learned anything of substance during the Midterms this year. On some issues, Trump & Co have done themselves no favours.
Yes, “Sparkle Beach Ken” is their pick of the litter.
Which tells you what an array of absute shit “candidates” they have to choose from.
So with all their cries of racism this racism that, they’re just gonna pick another white guy.
Everything you say about Newsom is true, so I also think he will be the 2028 nominee—AOC aspirations are delusional.
BUT, that is good news for Vance and Rubio. Newsom’s delivered governor results were horrible (even tho mainstream Democrats may think otherwise), while 47’s successor will be running on actual delivered results. ‘Mainstream’ Democrats apparently think trans in women’s sports is ok, homelessness is ok, people fleeing CA is ok, and fraud is ok. Those are ‘80/20’ issues where ‘mainstream’ Dems are the 20%—so they will lose.
You are assuming that the MSM won’t do it’s best to hide Newsom’s performance, and the low-information voters will accept the narrative?
They did their best to hide Kamala’s incompetence.
The current Democrat front runner to replace Newscum (the billionaire Tom Seyer) is all in on allowing men to compete against women.
BTW, I thought Democrats opposed having billionaires in politics?
I think it’s “Steyer.” Another eco-fascist loon, of course.
It’s about time. Hopefully the people feel the same way. Everything that is wrong in the USA can be found in California in abundance.
Wait.. Gruesome gets driven around in a big black SUV… ???
.. surely it must be an EV !!!
California and Newsom embarrass the rest of us. Stop that!!
Two easy things could have been done by Newsom within the first couple of weeks of the Hormuz shutdown. An easy step would be emergency orders bringing California’s gas taxes and fees in line other states. Less obviously, but nearly equally as effective, would be to have anticipated the cutoff in alkylate shipments from the gulf and drop California’s blending requirements. California sources lots of its alkylate blending stock from the gulf. The blending requirements were adopted in the mid-90’s before the widespread adoption of catalytic converters and engine modifications and before point source emission controls were widely implemented in the state. These have been so effective that the blending requirement is now a minor part(<15% of the state’s air pollution control effort.
Of course our slick haired aspirant did not do the two easy things that would have helped his already hard-pressed constituents. By the way, any crude oil in that hair gel?
Gray Davis should have been a clue. Oh well.
California was a reasonable place to visit but even that is gone now. Go with ID, WY, UT, or AZ instead.
Reasonable place? When I still traveled for work I hated when I was assigned to work there. Traffic sucks 24/7. Get caught with a traffic violation and they stick it to you, pulled a California stop at a traffic light and got lit up for over $300. Hotels were nice but pricey. Food is pricey. Anytime I had to buy supplies/parts that was pricey. During COVID residents would practically spit on you if you dared to walk outside without a mask even though it was allowed, think the only reason they didn’t is that required them lowering their mask first.
About the only good thing about going to California is flights in and out are plentiful. I didn’t find much reasonable about California.
There is a cycle at work here. California just screws itself while not having control of Congress and the WH. Then they play catchup on the rest of us directed from DC so they are not alone in decline on the west coast.
Californians don’t need gasoline. They switched to solar powered cars long ago.
Gavin Newsom wants us to shun Chevron. I’d say send him a bigger message and boycott all the Democrats on both the June and November ballots, then head to the neighborhood Chevron and fill ‘er up.
In USA gasoline is now Republican?
Andrew Jackson would sh– a stone.