Chevron plans to relocate its headquarters from California to Texas, joining a growing list of companies bound for the Lone Star State citing excessive regulation for their departure.
The Financial Times reports the second-biggest U.S. oil company said Friday it would leave the state where it has been a fixture for almost 150 years following clashes with authorities over climate policies and penalties it has said render California “closed for business.”
The promise of lower taxes and lighter regulation is also often given as a reason by other companies that have also made the same move from the West Coast.
Private citizens have also had enough of a climate of over-regulation.
Elon Musk said in July he would move the headquarters of X and SpaceX, as Breitbart News reported. He cited concerns over California’s laws and urban safety issues for the shift.
Chevron flagged it expects all corporate functions to migrate to Houston over the next five years.
Chevron currently has roughly 7,000 employees in the Houston area which dubs itself the “energy capital of the world” and is home to more than a third of the publicly traded oil and gas groups in the U.S., including ExxonMobil, Chevron’s larger rival.
The company operates crude oil fields, technical facilities, and two refineries and supplies more than 1,800 retail stations in California.
Chevron also said chief executive Mike Wirth and vice-chair Mark Nelson would relocate from its headquarters in the Californian city of San Ramon to Houston, Texas by the end of the year, which would “enable better collaboration and engagement with executives, employees, and business partners.”
