{"id":4562,"date":"2026-07-15T11:06:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T11:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4562"},"modified":"2026-07-15T11:06:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T11:06:00","slug":"walters-how-newsoms-complex-history-with-oil-industry-could-affect-a-presidential-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4562","title":{"rendered":"Walters: How Newsom\u2019s complex history with oil industry could affect a presidential run"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gavin Newsom and his family have had a long and complicated relationship with the oil industry. The latest chapter in the saga, a legal and political dispute over state aid to the California\u2019s refineries, could affect Newsom\u2019s presidential ambitions.<\/p>\n

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The roots of this situation date back to the 1940s, when Gordon Getty, a son of\u00a0oil magnate J. Paul Getty, lived with the Newsom family while attending school in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Newsom\u2019s father, William, later became an attorney for the Getty oil empire and in 1973\u00a0delivered a $2.2 million ransom\u00a0to a gang that had kidnapped J. Paul Getty\u2019s grandson in Italy, later describing it as \u201can interesting sort of job.\u201d<\/p>\n

After his parents divorced,\u00a0Gavin Newsom was unofficially adopted by Gordon Getty, essentially returning the favor that the Newsom family had given him three decades earlier. In\u00a0his recent memoir, Newsom describes being divided between his life as the son of an impoverished single mother and the surrogate son of a family with billions in oil industry money.<\/p>\n

In 1975, then-Gov. Jerry Brown, another family friend, appointed William Newsom to a Placer County judgeship, later elevating him to the state appellate court. While on the bench in the 1980s, the elder Newsom helped Gordon Getty gain legislation changing California trust law, thus allowing Getty to break the J. Paul Getty trust and obtain billions of petrodollars.<\/p>\n

In 1995, William Newsom retired from the court and became administrator of the Gordon Getty Trust, telling an interviewer, \u201cI make my living working for Gordon Getty.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few years earlier, the trust provided seed capital for a wine shop venture that Gavin Newsom and Gordon Getty\u2019s son, Billy, were launching, called \u201cPlumpJack,\u201d after an opera Gordon Getty had composed.<\/p>\n

Essentially, Newsom owes his start in business to the huge oil fortune that J. Paul Getty, once described as the world\u2019s richest man, had amassed. Without that connection, Newsom would have been hard-pressed to begin what became a lucrative business career.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Nevertheless, Newsom metaphorically bit the hand that fed him in 2022, when he began vilifying California\u2019s oil refiners, accusing them of gouging motorists on gas prices. Months later the Legislature\u00a0passed a mild measure\u00a0to have the state Energy Commission monitor refinery operations.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s a new sheriff in town in California, where we brought Big Oil to their knees. And I\u2019m proud of this state,\u201d Newsom said. It was hyperbole, but within months refiners began announcing plans to shutter operations or threatening to do so, raising the possibility of gasoline shortages and higher prices.<\/p>\n

Very soon thereafter, Newsom did a political about-face. He urged refiners to remain and signed\u00a0legislation making it easier to drill new oil wells.<\/p>\n

This year the California Air Resources Board\u00a0overhauled its cap-and-trade auctions, where refiners and other businesses purchase rights to emit greenhouse gases. The program was renamed cap-and-invest and refiners were given free emission rights as an inducement to remain in the state.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Newsom hailed the changes, but environmental groups are incensed at the turnabout. This month the nonprofit\u00a0Communities for Better Environment filed suit\u00a0in Los Angeles, alleging the changes violated the California Environmental Quality Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe amendments lock in decades of subsidies for polluting industries, without CARB having performed the required analysis of their wide-ranging environmental harms that would empower decision-makers to make a fully informed determination about the wisdom of these significant changes,\u201d the suit says.<\/p>\n

The Democratic Party\u2019s left wing has been on a roll in recent elections, and it includes environmental activists who view the oil industry as a villain.<\/p>\n

Newsom\u2019s newly minted pro-oil stance, plus his family\u2019s history with the industry, could backfire in a presidential campaign.<\/p>\n

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Dan Walters is a CalMatters columnist.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

California governor faces progressive backlash over sudden fossil fuel policy reversals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nWalters: How Newsom\u2019s complex history with oil industry could affect a presidential run - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4562\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Walters: How Newsom\u2019s complex history with oil industry could affect a presidential run - Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"California governor faces progressive backlash over sudden fossil fuel policy reversals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4562\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-15T11:06:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4562#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4562\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13065d40d633843429ac57d4e5c06f9b\"},\"headline\":\"Walters: How Newsom\u2019s complex history with oil industry could affect a presidential run\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-15T11:06:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4562\"},\"wordCount\":676,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4562#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/2333ff9b76d79f86b7f656506daa6428.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Opinion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4562#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4562\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4562\",\"name\":\"Walters: How Newsom\u2019s complex history with oil industry could affect a presidential run - 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