Foes Aim to Put the Brakes on Bill to Cut Gasoline Use

In a summer of sky-high pump prices in California, Assemblywoman Christine Kehoe thought she had an idea everyone would like: cutting statewide gasoline consumption by 1% a year from now to 2020.

“It’s a common-sense measure that I think most Californians will support,” she said.

But the San Diego Democrat and her modest proposal have run into an oil industry buzz saw. Energy companies, claiming that Kehoe is trying to foist a “hidden tax increase” on motorists, are going all-out to cripple her bill and, perhaps, threaten her political career.

“They’re trying to rough me up,” Kehoe said.

A two-term lawmaker now running for the state Senate, Kehoe is getting a firsthand lesson about how powerful special interest groups like international energy corporations play tough-guy politics.

Her bill, which nearly died last week amid heavy lobbying by oil company representatives outside the Senate chamber, is expected to come up for a last-ditch Senate vote today. If the reworked bill is approved, it would come back for an Assembly vote. Supporters say they have a good shot of getting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s signature on the bill -- if they can get past the oil company opposition.

Schwarzenegger has not taken a stance on the measure, his office said Friday.

Kehoe’s opponents -- the oil companies and a coalition that includes the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Farm Bureau Federation and the California Grocers Assn. -- have been relentless.

Over the last few days, Kehoe’s offices have been bombarded with dozens of faxes from small businesses in her district. Using similar wording, the letters from truckers, caterers, concrete companies and other small companies express shock and disappointment that Kehoe would write a bill that they allege would raise taxes and drive up gasoline and diesel prices.

“Your support of the bill shows that you are out of touch with the working persons in the state,” wrote James Phillips, owner of Packaging Store, a three-employee company in San Diego.

The opposition campaign, which calls itself “STOP Hidden Taxes” and lists an address in Burlingame, Calif., is being orchestrated by Woodward & McDowell, a political consulting and initiative firm. Woodward’s services are being underwritten by the Western States Petroleum Assn., said STOP Hidden Taxes spokesman Al Lundeen, a Woodward employee.

The petroleum association represents oil giants like ChevronTexaco Corp., ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp., BP and smaller production, refining and marketing companies.

Business interests, Lundeen said, don’t trust Kehoe’s assertion that her bill simply sets a goal of cutting the state’s gasoline consumption by 15% over the next 15 years -- primarily by hiking fuel efficiency, improving maintenance and installing high-tech tires.

They remain unconvinced, even though the bill specifically rules out any new taxes and fees.

“Anytime the Legislature puts out new rules, there’s always some added taxes,” Packaging Store’s owner Phillips said in a telephone interview.

Environmentalists and alternative-fuel advocates, meanwhile, decry what they suspect is a grass-roots campaign that really isn’t -- an “Astroturf” campaign in statehouse parlance.

“They hire some ‘letterhead factory’ to create the illusion there’s grass-roots on their side,” said V. John White, legislative director of the nonprofit Clean Power Campaign, “when the fact is, it’s the oil companies against the public.”