Chevron to Free Oil Companies From Limits

US oil and gas company ChevronTexaco participated among many corporations and interest groups in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to reorganize almost every aspect of state government.

This plan was much influenced by ChevronTexaco, which managed to shape such key recommendations as the removal of restrictions on oil refineries.
Chevron enjoyed immense success in influencing the report through its array of lobbyists, attorneys and trade organizations.
Chevron, whose officials acknowledge they lobbied hard to get their ideas in the report, is one of about 20 companies that paid to send the governor and his staff to this week's Republican National Convention in New York.
On Wednesday, Schwarzenegger attended a closed-door meeting in New York with representatives of those companies, including Chevron. And just three weeks after the governor's office released the 2,700-page reorganization report, the company gave $100,000 to a Schwarzenegger-controlled political fund.
Billy Hamilton, co-executive director of the plan, said the report's authors were not influenced by Chevron and that special interests had no role in the production of the report.