Chevron leaves California as state regulations tighten

Chevron, the nation’s second-largest oil company, said Friday it will move its headquarters from California to Texas, joining a shrinking group of companies complaining about tough regulations in the Golden State.

Chevron’s corporate move after more than a century in California could be seen as a stain on the state’s business policy. The oil company has now joined Tesla in leaving California to seek looser regulations in Texas.

The company employs about 2,000 workers in San Ramon, California, and operates the state’s second- and third-largest refineries, in Richmond and El Segundo, producing 30 percent of the state’s refined petroleum products.

Chevron’s U.S. Products president Andy Walz told POLITICO last week that Richmond’s proposal to impose a $1-a-barrel tax on refined products, following the state’s ban on new gasoline-powered car sales, consideration of a cap on refinery profits, a surcharge on gasoline under the Low Carbon Fuel Standard and lawsuits against big oil companies, are “coming close” to ending the company’s California operations.