The article "California bill would criminalize energy curtailment," (OGJ, July 23, 2001, p. 34) outlines just the type of legislation the oil and gas industry has needed for years. I think all of the producer organizations should back this measure as proposed by California Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza (D-Merced).
The proposed bill calls for prison terms, and fines based not on the severity of the crime, but on 10% of the offending corporation's gross assets. The loosely defined language of the bill criminalizes "any act that creates a shortage of fuel with the intent to raise fuel prices or materially adversely affect competition" in California's energy market.
This bill should prove a huge boon to the oil and gas industry. Under this statute, any action taken by Greenpeace to block operations of a platform or drilling rig will now be punishable. Anyone attempting to use provisions of the Endangered Species Act to delay construction of a gas pipeline would now be a criminal. The California ban on MBTE should also be overturned because this adversely affects competition in the oxygenate additives market.
One unfortunate side-effect of the proposed bill would be the loss of such a fine legislator as Mr. Cardoza. Since he has undoubtedly voted for legislation blocking development of offshore oil and gas reserves, his actions have created a shortage of fuel on the order of hundreds of millions of barrels of oil equivalents. Surely he will be one of the first offenders sent to prison.
Finally, the "bounty hunter" provision is really the crowning triumph of the proposed legislation. Anyone providing information resulting in a conviction would receive 10% of the resulting fine. The fine can be up to 10% of gross assets, so by my math a whistle blower would receive 1% of the offender's assets. I am not a greedy man, I do not need 1% of the state of California's assets to punish the misdeeds of one legislator. I would settle for a mere 1% of the assets in the CalPERS retirement fund (California Public Employees' Retirement System). This should be a sufficient penalty to discourage state legislators from blocking much-needed oil and gas development, and it would also allow a "robber baron" such as myself to easily afford to put my two girls through college.
Rod A. Phares
Great Plains Petroleum Inc.
Wichita
