In-N-Out Burger, Meta fight California climate change bill
The entrance to In-N-Out Burger, located off Interstate 10, is viewed on May 10, 2022 in Cathedral City, California. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)
In-N-Out Burger, the adored California burger chain, and Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, are fighting a climate change bill in the California state legislature, disclosures show.
SB 253, dubbed the "Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act," would require companies and corporations with total annual revenues of more than $1 billion that do business in the Golden State to publicly disclose their greenhouse gas emissions. The new bill would go a step beyond many current emissions reportings and require disclosures on indirect emissions that are produced in the production and consumption of a company's products and services.
If passed, the bill will have an outsized effect on the ways companies and corporations do business given the size of California's economy, which may soon be the fourth largest in the world.
The revelations about In-N-Out and Meta were first reported by The Lever and the reporting highlights how food systems can account for over a third of all global emissions.
In-N-Out Burger paid $90,000 to lobby against the climate bill and one other bill, to Carpenter, Garcia, Sievers LLC, disclosures show. That lobbying firm also represents the California Asphalt Pavement Association, Toyota Motor North America, Inc., and the Western States Petroleum Association.
In 2022, In-N-Out spent nearly $180,000 lobbying bills in the California legislature on topics ranging from implementing a standardized wage for fast food workers to gun control.
Meta paid $48,000 to lobby against SB 253 and many other bills to Fernández Cervantes Government Affairs – a lobbying firm that also represents Shopify, Inc. and Sysco. The $48,000 Meta spent on the California bills is just a drop in the bucket compared to the $3.65 million it spent lobbying nationwide in the fourth quarter of 2022 alone.
Many other groups and businesses are also opposed to California's SB 253 including Chambers of Commerce from across the state, as well as multiple farming, water and agriculture associations.
"Requiring reporting and limiting emissions associated with a company’s entire supply chain will necessarily require that large businesses stop doing business with small and medium businesses that will struggle to accurately measure their greenhouse gas emissions let alone meet ambitious carbon emission requirements, leaving these companies without the contracts that enable them to grow and employ more workers," a coalition of groups in opposition to the bill wrote to lawmakers.
State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), the bill’s lead author, claims SB 253 would force corporations to start "walking the talk."
"Right now, billion-dollar corporations spend more money on anti-climate ads than they would on these disclosures," Wiener said in a statement. "[The disclosures] impose no costs to small businesses, and they are essential to meeting our climate goals."
In-N-Out and Meta Platforms did not respond to requests for comment.
The bill has already passed the state Senate 24-9 on May 30. It now heads to the Assembly for a vote in the near future.
Freddy Brewster is a reporter for KTVU.
Email Freddy at freddy.brewster@fox.com or follow him on Twitter @freddy_brewster