Villaraigosa, despite climate credentials, pivots toward oil industry in run for governor

Los Angeles Times ^ | May 26, 2025 3 AM PT | Seema Mehta and Laura J. Nelson

[E. Pluribus Unum]

• Former Los Angeles mayor has received more than $1 million in campaign contributions and other financial support from fossil-fuel interests during his decades in public life.
• His support of the oil industry illustrates a broader divide in the Democratic Party about wanting to fight climate change, but not to the detriment of low-income Americans.

As California positions itself as a leader on climate change, former Los Angeles mayor and gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa is pivoting away from his own track record as an environmental champion to defend the state’s struggling oil industry.

Villaraigosa’s work to expand mass transit, plant trees and reduce carbon emissions made him a favorite of the environmental movement, but the former state Assembly speaker also accepted more than $1 million in campaign contributions and other financial support from oil companies and other donors tied to the industry over more than three decades in public life, according to city and state fundraising disclosures reviewed by The Times.

Since entering the race last year to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom, Villaraigosa has accepted more than $176,000 from donors with ties to the oil industry, including from a company that operates oil fields in the San Joaquin Valley and in Los Angeles County, the disclosures show.

The clash between Villaraigosa’s environmentalist credentials and oil-industry ties surfaced in the governor’s race after Valero announced in late April that its Bay Area refinery would close next year, not long after Phillips 66 said its Wilmington refinery would close in 2025.

Villaraigosa is now warning that California drivers could see gas prices soar, blasting as “absurd” policies that he said could have led to the refinery closures.

“I’m not fighting for refineries,” Villaraigosa said in an interview. “I’m fighting for the people who pay for...”

[E. Pluribus Unum]

It's only temporary. Democrats have the luxury of never keeping any of their promises and getting away with it.

[al baby]

He likes to boink tall news anchorettes that steal headphones from the TSA line at LAX

[SuperLuminal]

Worthless propaganda from the Los Angeles Slimes...

[datricker]

As a child he responded to his real name - Tony Villar.

Tony the phony - born in East L.A he was - where is Cheech?

[Libloather]

“I’m not fighting for refineries,”

Why not? NEXT!

[sauropod]

Seema’s panties are in a bunch.