California Reaches Agreement with Tesoro to Protect Jobs and Monitor Gas Prices

LOS ANGELES -- Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today announced an agreement with Tesoro to preserve California jobs, help protect consumers from gas price spikes, and require environmental retrofitting of the state’s largest oil refinery.

“These commitments will protect jobs for potentially thousands of Californians, ensure that California’s oil and gas markets remain competitive for years to come, and lead to a reduction in greenhouse gases and emissions,” Attorney General Harris said.

Tesoro’s August, 2012 acquisition of BP’s Carson refinery was subject to detailed investigation by the California Attorney General’s Office and Federal Trade Commission.

In a letter to the Chair of the California Energy Commission, Attorney General Harris provides details of the agreement reached between the state and Tesoro, which include:

• A guarantee to preserve more than 1,000 jobs at the Wilmington refinery for the next two years.
• Joint monitoring by the Attorney General’s office and the California Energy Commission of gas pricing, volume and refinery capacity.
• Requirements that Tesoro implement safeguards against price spiking from refinery outages through increased capacity for production from other regional refineries.
• A commitment that Arco stations acquired by Tesoro will remain a low-cost fuel provider for California consumers.
• An environmental retrofit of both the Wilmington and Carson refineries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

A copy of the letter is attached to the electronic version of this release at http://oag.ca.gov/news .