LAT:

The dire warning arrived in a mailer to thousands of state voters from a group called the California Drivers Alliance.

“Gasoline restrictions … will hurt families in LA,” the geographically targeted mailer warned, alerting the recipient that legislation being debated in Sacramento would “take away our ability to drive to work in our own cars.”

The group’s name sounded as if it was a grass-roots organization of motorists, but it was actually the creation of the Western States Petroleum Assn. as part of its successful lobbying effort last year to kill a proposal that would have reduced gas consumption by 50% in California by the year 2030.

When the leading oil industry association in the state publicly filed a required disclosure of its lobbying effort, there was no mention of its funding of the mail campaign and a related YouTube video.