Financial support for displaced California oil workers set to expire

A pair of pilot programs meant to financially support and retrain thousands of oil industry workers at risk of losing their jobs due to the state’s climate policies are headed for termination, a year after their launch.

The move comes as those representing the oil industry’s workforce are advocating for the opposite — more public aid as California aggressively pursues its clean energy future.

They say a growing number of the Californians who helped build the state’s oil and gas energy systems face an uncertain fate.

“That’s a slap in the face is what that is,” said Tyson Bagley, a second-generation oil worker, said about the state’s support up to this point. “If they want to do this transition the right way, they need our workers, our voices at the table.”

California is embarking on a complex evolution away from fossil fuels and harmful greenhouse gas emissions and toward electric-powered vehicles and appliances. Workers who help pull more than 150,000 barrels of crude oil from the ground each day in California, those who operate underground mining machinery, oversee drilling operations in the Central Valley and work in refineries fear becoming an afterthought.

To navigate the impending job losses, advocates and policy researchers call for more state investment to train and prepare the oil and gas workforce for jobs in other sectors. That includes financial assistance to those who may not be able to secure a comparable income, a policy referred to as a “just transition.”

California’s 2022-23 budget established a $40 million workforce displacement fund and a $20 million pilot program for training displaced oil and gas workers in Kern and Los Angeles counties to help cap abandoned wells.