Oilman and Lobbyist
Thereafter, Shell retired from politics to concentrate on his business and his remarriage. Right after the war, Shell had entered the petroleum field as an independent oil producer. He drilled wells in the Bakersfield area even though he lived at the time in Los Angeles. Later he was an industry lobbyist and argued passionately for expanded drilling and refinery capacity to keep down the cost of fuel to consumers and to strengthen the American economy during the Cold War. As a lobbyist, he commuted between Bakersfield and the capital in Sacramento.
As an energy lobbyist in 1975, Shell fought the attempt of Governor Jerry Brown to repeal the "depletion allowance," a tax break for the state's oil industry. Brown aimed his fire at "big oil" in an era of popular environmental activism on the West Coast. The decisive vote against the allowance was cast in the California Senate by the usually pro-business Republican Senator Robert S. Stevens. Shell claimed that Stevens had promised him that he would support keeping the allowance: "He had shaken my hand and told me he was with me." recalled Shell, who considered a handshake a bond of honor. Brown later rewarded Stevens with a judicial appointment, but Stevens was driven from the bench for making salacious telephone calls.
In 1982, Shell opposed the gubernatorial candidacy of Lieutenant Governor Mike Curb, a recording company executive, though Curb had the backing of many conservatives in southern California. Shell recalled that some of those backing Curb had also been Nixon loyalists two decades earlier. Instead, Shell recruited Attorney General George Deukmejian to enter the race. Deukmejian defeated Curb and then narrowly beat the African American Democrat Tom Bradley, the mayor of Los Angeles. In that same election, Shell nemesis Jerry Brown lost a bid for the U.S. Senate to Republican Pete Wilson of San Diego. According to Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters, Shell adhered to the golden rule of politics that "what goes around comes around."
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