CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
February 22, 2013 | By Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times
SACRAMENTO - State Sen. Michael J. Rubio, who was leading the Legislature's effort to make California's environmental laws more business-friendly, abruptly resigned from office Friday to accept a government-affairs job with Chevron Corp. Rubio, a Democrat from Shafter, in the Central Valley, was chairman of the Senate Environmental Quality Committee and introduced bills during his two years in office that related to the oil industry in his district. The state Fair Political Practices Commission will conduct a routine review of Rubio's move to make sure it involves no violation of the conflict-of-interest rules in California's Political Reform Act. "We will look to see if there is something to indicate that the act was violated and, if so, we will take a look at it," said the commission's chief of enforcement, Gary Winuk.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
February 22, 2013 | By Patrick McGreevy
State Sen. Michael J. Rubio (D - Shafter) abruptly announced Friday that he is resigning his office to spend more time with his family and accept a government affairs job with Chevron Corp. The departure of Rubio, who was leading the charge to make California's environmental laws more business-friendly, creates a third vacancy in the 40-person Senate. “As many of you know, a little over a year ago I decided not to run for the United States Congress to meet the needs of my growing family," Rubio said in a statement. "My time serving since then has been a blessing, but it has also been a challenge. I have missed too many family dinners, bedtime stories and parent-teacher conferences.
BUSINESS
April 27, 2012 | By Ronald D. White
Chevron Corp. saw a first-quarter profit rise of 4.2% to $6.47 billion, or $3.27 per share. That compared with $6.21 billion, or $3.09 per share, a year earlier. Sales for the world's third-largest publicly traded oil company were up just slightly to $60.71 billion, compared with $60.34 billion in the first quarter last year. San Ramon, Calif.-based Chevron substantially increased capital and exploratory spending to $6.42 billion, up from $5.05 billion a year earlier. Chevron oil and gas production declined to 2.63 million barrels per day in the first quarter, compared with 2.76 million barrels a day during the same period a year ago. The company's earnings were hurt by a sharp year-to-year decline in natural gas prices, but the decline and collapsing natural gas prices were more than offset by sharply higher oil prices.
BUSINESS
March 20, 2012 | Bloomberg News
The chief executives of Chevron Corp.'s and Transocean Ltd.'s Brazilian units are among 17 executives at the two companies banned from leaving the country pending an investigation into an offshore oil spill. Chevron's George Buck and Transocean's Michael Legrand were on the list of managers that federal prosecutors asked Judge Vlamir Costa Magalhaes to ban from leaving Brazil, according to a copy of the request sent Monday by the prosecutor's office. The judge issued the ban Friday.
BUSINESS
October 1, 2011 | Reuters
Chevron Corp. on Monday will unveil a solar oil field project that has been hit by cost overruns and delays but serves as a showcase for the technology of Chevron-backed solar thermal company BrightSource Energy. Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company, said Friday that three of its executives would attend the launch of the "demonstration project" in Coalinga, which is designed to use solar power to create steam to inject into wells to improve the flow of heavy oil. The 65-acre project consists of 7,600 mirrors focusing sunlight on a 327-foot tower.
BUSINESS
July 31, 2010 | By Ronald D. White, Los Angeles Times
Chevron Corp. continued what has been a very big week for most of the world's super-sized oil companies, shattering analyst expectations and tripling its second-quarter profit to $5.4 billion compared with a year earlier. The industry's pumped-up profit provides a fresh target for public anguish over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which has fouled beaches in five states since the deadly April 20 explosion of a rig drilling a well for London oil giant BP. "They are thriving when a lot of families are out there suffering," said Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen's energy program.