California’s energy industry meets the needs of California consumers, fueling transportation, food supply, health, housing and powering our technology. Despite this fact or, perhaps, because of it, energy issues pose complex, challenging questions for California policymakers. How do we keep the world’s fifth largest economy growing while also meeting necessary emissions reduction targets? What is the responsible way to manage California’s long-term transition to alternative fuels?

These challenging questions compel all participants in the policymaking process to use facts and the best available science to guide policy decisions. It is also essential that participants in such an important debate commit to high standards of transparency and comply with all applicable laws governing lobbying and the granting of tax-exempt status.

Californians for Energy Independence, a coalition of California’s oil and gas producers and members of the communities that they serve, is launching Extracting Fact as a special initiative to shed light on key issues related to energy policy in California. Extracting Fact also asks questions regarding the lack of transparency among some of the key activist organizations who have engaged in these debates, often with misleading and incorrect information.

As activist organizations continue their calls for radical shifts in energy policies, the aim of Extracting Fact is to ensure energy policy decisions in California are based on proven science, not false scare tactics, misleading rhetoric, or junk science.