Chevron, the second-largest oil company in the country, said Friday it will move its corporate headquarters from California to Texas, joining the outflow of companies complaining of tight regulations in the Golden State.
Chevron’s corporate move after more than a century of being based in California could be seen as a black eye to the state’s business policies. The oil company now joins Tesla in leaving California to seek the looser regulations of Texas.
The company has roughly 2,000 employees in San Ramon, California, and runs the state’s second- and third-largest refineries, in Richmond and El Segundo, producing 30 percent of the state’s refined petroleum products.
Chevron president of Americas products, Andy Walz, told POLITICO last week that a proposal by Richmond to put a $1-per-barrel tax on refined products, following a state ban on the sales of new gas-powered cars, consideration of a profit cap on refineries, implementation of an additional charge on gasoline through the Low Carbon Fuel Standard and lawsuits against major oil companies were “getting close” to a death knell for the company’s time in California.
