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accountability
How Big Oil Lobbied Its Way Out of Accountability for the LA Fires
"Accountability is an existential threat to their business model, and their business model is an existential threat to all of us, and that’s the bottom line," said Meghan Sahli-Wells, the former mayor of Culver City.
Jan 15, 2025
As devastating wildfires continue to burn in the Los Angeles region on Wednesday—placing tens of thousands of Californians under evacuation orders and causing over $250 billion in economic damages by one estimate—a pair of new reports highlight how fossil fuel companies have dodged responsibility for their role in the destruction and hampered the state's ability to fight back by depriving it of funds.
Two new reports highlight how fossil fuel companies hampered the state's ability to fight back by depriving it of funds.
California's fossil fuel industry deployed lobbying muscle to kill legislation that would compel polluters to pay into a fund that would help prevent disasters and aid cleanup efforts, and has taken advantage of a tax loophole to deprives the state of corporate tax revenue, thereby "putting climate and social programs in peril." In the case of the former, California's biggest fossil fuel trade group, the Western States Petroleum Association, recently launched a digital campaign that appears aimed at throwing cold water on any such legislative efforts.
According to The Guardian, the Polluters Pay Climate Cost Recovery Act of 2024 appeared on 76% of the 74 lobby filings submitted in 2024 by the oil company Chevron and the Western States Petroleum Association.
The legislation—which didn't make it out of the state senate in 2024—would, if enacted, create a recovery program forcing fossil fuel polluters to pay their "fair share of the damage caused by the sale of their products" during the period of 2000 to 2020, according to the nonprofit newsroom CalMatters.
According to The Guardian, the filings from those two firms that included this specific bill totaled over $30 million—though lobbying laws do not require a breakdown that would make clear how much was spent specifically on the "polluter pay" law.
With Los Angeles burning, there's renewed interest in passing the bill, The Guardian reports, citing supporters of the legislation. But Western States Petroleum Association isn't sitting idly by. On January 8, the group launched ads that suggest measures like the "polluter pay" bill would force them to increase oil prices. The ads, which appear to have been taken down, do "not specifically mention the polluter pay bill, it echoes the 2024 campaign that did," wrote The Guardian.
"Accountability is an existential threat to their business model, and their business model is an existential threat to all of us, and that’s the bottom line," said Meghan Sahli-Wells, the former mayor of Culver City who currently works for the environmental advocacy group Elected Officials To Protect America, told the paper.
Meanwhile, another report from The Climate Center—a think tank and "do-tank" focused on curbing pollution—has thrust a tax loophole long used by multinational oil and gas companies, into the spotlight.
The report released last week details how "years of litigation and lobbying by oil and gas majors like ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Shell Oil" are responsible for a large corporate tax avoidance policy that is known as the "Water's Edge election" that became law in 1986.
The law allows multinational corporations to "elect" avoid taxes on earnings they designate as beyond the "water's edge" of the borders of states in which they operate, according to The Climate Center.
"Closing the loophole as it applies to the oil and gas industry could put anywhere between $75 to $146 million per year back into the state’s budget," the report states.
For context, California closed a $46 billion budget shortfall last year, including by enacting cuts to climate and clean air programs.
"The water's edge tax loophole allows multinational fossil fuel corporations to dodge paying their fair share of taxes that can help fund vital environmental projects, which could include wildfire preparedness," California Assemblymember Damon Connolly (D-12) told the progressive outlet The Lever, the first outlet to report on the findings.
California lawmakers last year passed a bill that took aim at some aspects of the loophole, but an advocacy group whose board of directors includes representative from the oil and gas industry has filed lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the reform, according to the The Climate Center.
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Pardon Me: Ending the Stigma That Harms Generations
When we reduce people to their convictions, we fail to see their humanity, their potential, and the harm this judgment causes not just to them but to their families.
Dec 25, 2024
U.S. President Joe Biden’s recent clemency grants to 1,500 Americans sparked renewed discussions about second chances.
Yet for millions of parents—mothers and fathers—the shackles of their past legal convictions extend far beyond their time served. The collateral consequences of a criminal record don’t just haunt individuals. They ripple through families, shaping the lives of children who had no part in their parents’ mistakes.
As someone who has traversed the lasting consequences of a conviction, I know firsthand how society judges parents like me—not by the love and care we provide our children but by the labels of our past. But when we reduce people to their convictions, we fail to see their humanity, their potential, and the harm this judgment causes not just to them but to their families.
The collateral consequences of a criminal conviction aren’t just abstract statistics—they’re the missed field trips, the lost jobs, the countless times parents must tell their children, “I’m sorry, but I can’t.”
Around 77 million Americans, or one in three Americans, have criminal records, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Each year, more than 600,000 Americans are released from prison and reenter society. It is a transition rife with barriers of injustice, prejudice, racism, and inequality.
The United States has more than 44,000 laws and policies that restrict people with criminal convictions from accessing basic rights and opportunities. These rules create barriers to housing, employment, education, and even parenting. For mothers and fathers, the inability to rebuild their lives post-incarceration isn’t just a personal struggle—it’s a family crisis.
One of the most painful moments after my conviction was realizing I couldn’t chaperone my 13-year-old daughter’s eighth grade field trip because of my record. Telling her I wasn’t allowed to go broke something inside me.
For parents like me, these moments happen all the time—when we can’t volunteer at school, rent an apartment near better schools, or secure a job that provides stability. To our children, it feels like rejection.
One report estimates that the number of children with incarcerated parents ranges from 1.7 to 2.7 million. Research shows these children are more likely to face emotional, behavioral, and academic challenges. They’re often treated as if their parent’s conviction is their fault. This stigma perpetuates cycles of poverty and marginalization, making it harder for families to break free from systemic barriers.
Beyond the personal pain, the statistics paint a bleak picture. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, nearly 70% of formerly incarcerated individuals are unemployed or underemployed a year after release. For parents, this means struggling to provide even the basics for their children.
Women are particularly vulnerable, with many returning to find their housing options limited because public housing policies exclude people with records. Fathers, too, often face obstacles in reestablishing their parental rights or even being present in their children’s lives due to parole restrictions and ongoing stigma.
These systemic barriers serve as a constant reminder that, in the eyes of society, those with records are defined by their convictions. It’s as though the world has dog eared a page from their worst chapter, refusing to read further.
To be sure, accountability matters. Parents who commit harm must take responsibility for their actions. But accountability must not equate to a lifetime of condemnation. Punishing parents indefinitely only compounds harm, especially for the children who depend on them for stability and love.
Parents are more than their past mistakes, just as a book is more than its cover. Judging someone solely by their record robs them of the chance to write a better chapter. It also robs their children of the opportunity to see their parents as whole people—flawed but capable of change and love.
The collateral consequences of a criminal conviction aren’t just abstract statistics—they’re the missed field trips, the lost jobs, the countless times parents must tell their children, “I’m sorry, but I can’t.”
If we truly value redemption as a society, we must move beyond judging people solely by their convictions.
Every parent deserves the chance to show their children that they are more than their past. And every child deserves the opportunity to believe in second chances. Clemency relies on laws, policies, pardons, and humanity.
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Powerlessness, Violence, and the Murder of a Health Insurance CEO
People are hungry for accountability. Desperate for it. Aching for it. We don't have to condone or glorify the assassination of Brian Thompson in order to stop and listen to hear what some of the reaction to this violent and desperate act is trying to tell us.
Dec 14, 2024
The killing of United Health Care CEO Brian Thompson was wrong. Vigilante justice is wrong. Dangerous. Bad. Scary. Let the record show, I was not among the people who celebrated the killing of Brian Thompson in any way whatsoever. But I have a few ideas about why some folks did celebrate it. And I have no desire to shame them for it. I want to listen. To understand. Just as I did years ago, working with the violent offenders who were court-mandated to see me.
Violence can be the language of the unheard or oppressed, a statement so “loud” it can no longer be ignored. It can be a way to try to bring balance to an imbalanced power dynamic when one feels powerless. I’d argue the gleeful memes and the posts, celebrating the horrible murder of a health insurance company CEO, come from the same place, albeit vicariously.
Many people have been horrified at the celebration: “My God, have we lost our humanity?!” But those same people don’t seem to also clutch their pearls when an unknown medical reviewer in a health insurance company keeps us or our loved ones or our friends or neighbors or co-workers from getting the care we need because it doesn’t fit their treatment algorithm, despite what the licensed medical doctor who knows us says. Some reviewers have admitted they don’t even look at a doctor’s clinical notes, solely making approval decisions based on that algorithm.
You can deeply listen in an effort to understand something and effect change without excusing it or condoning or glorifying it, and also without shaming it.
Health insurance companies market themselves as being there to help us when we need it most—when we’re sick, injured, dying, at our most vulnerable, or when we’re trying to stay healthy. But at the same time, the fact that lives are ruined or lost or our savings are drained because of denials or delays is seen as the “cost of doing business.” A private health insurance company’s reason to exist is to make money for itself. It doesn’t expand coverage, it most certainly doesn’t expedite care, and ultimately it doesn’t appear to give two shits about us. We, the collateral damage, know this. We live this.
Preventing access to timely healthcare because you’re more focused on making money for shareholders and CEOs is inhumane. Profits at the expense of people, especially in a care-based industry, are inhumane. Having to spend untold hours and days and weeks and months navigating health insurance obstacles, literally begging for care, especially when one is ill or taking care of someone who is ill, is inhumane. And when one feels so totally devalued, it’s easier to not be our best selves—or to be our shittiest selves—and devalue others in one way or another. When this human devaluation is couched in business, it’s okay, but when it’s a meme or a post, it’s not. And that double standard, that inequity, is more evident by the day, and has pushed some to their breaking point.
People are hungry for accountability. Desperate for it. Aching for it. We see what’s all around us and we know what’s coming. We want someone to fight for us.
It’s crazy-making, watching the old guard Democratic leadership not meet the moment as they work to maintain the status quo with platitudes and calls for playing nice when mere weeks ago they were calling U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and his Project 2025 fascist. We’re seeing corporate media completely fail us, continuing to describe the horrifying things Trump and his minions are saying and doing with vague euphemisms, if they cover these things at all. We’ve watched Trump’s slam-dunk court cases go away one by one. Sure, he’s an adjudicated rapist, but as I wrote here, what does it say that an adjudicated rapist can win an election to become the most powerful person on Earth after he was found liable for rape? Not exactly accountability. Corporations and their CEOs are making huge profits, often by price gouging the masses. They’re using that money to enrich themselves with staggering salaries and bonuses, and they’re buying elections in hopes of further enriching themselves. All the while they can’t seem to find the money to pay their workers a livable wage.
And so, the violent, horrible murder of a man whose company represents the literal pain and suffering and sometimes death of countless thousands, as he allegedly participated in insider trading, living the millionaire good life, represented a form of accountability for some. As perverse and skewed as it may seem, it was David defeating the bully, Goliath. It’s decidedly not how I want accountability, but as a psychotherapist I totally get where the sentiment comes from.
If we’re not going to be heel-dragging Democrats, liberals, or progressives who keep us forever stuck in a status quo that clearly isn’t working, if we truly want to help people, if we want to win elections, we need to take the energy we’re spending clutching those pearls and actually listen to the folks who are gleeful because of Brian Thompson’s death.
We need to hear the decades-in-the-making frustration, the unmet needs, the longing for a decent life, the pain, the fear, the stories of untreated illness, the loss, the profound feeling of powerlessness, the anger at the breathtaking inequality, and, most importantly, the seeming unwillingness of our leaders to do anything meaningful about it, that is bubbling just below the surface of all the gleeful memes and posts about a rich health insurance company CEOs murder.
You can deeply listen in an effort to understand something and effect change without excusing it or condoning or glorifying it, and also without shaming it. I’ve done it for decades in my psychotherapy practice.
Let’s give it a try.
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