Major oil refineries have announced plans to shutter amid the governor’s climate policies
California governor Gavin Newsom (D.), who spent years pushing a climate change agenda that one oil executive said made California “uninvestable,” is now seeking to shore up the state’s gasoline production as two major refineries are set to shut down and drive fuel prices even higher.
Newsom has been working to keep California’s refineries solvent and weighed incentives to increase in-state oil drilling since the Phillips 66 Company last year announced it would shut its Los Angeles-area refinery and Valero Energy followed suit with its Bay Area refinery, according to a Politico report Monday. Together, the two refineries account for around a fifth of California’s gasoline refining capacity.
The governor has gone so far that his office has started to circulate a draft bill that would allow more drilling in oil-rich Kern County, “an effort that environmental justice groups have fought for years,” Politico reported.
Newsom’s efforts mark a sharp departure from his years-long campaign to vilify oil companies and phase out fossil fuels. The governor, who in October accused the oil industry of “screwing” ordinary Californians for years, has repeatedly advocated for policies aimed at reducing gas demand and supply. He has also banned fracking and “spearheaded a lawsuit to hold major oil companies liable for climate change damages and legislation to consider a cap on oil industry profits,” according to Politico.
Chevron executive Andy Walz told Politico that California under Newsom’s leadership has been “uninvestable” for companies like his and that a refinery shutdown had been a long time coming.
“I don’t think [California officials] believed the industry was in trouble,” Walz said. “I think they misread what was really going on, and it took some real action by some competitors to get them woken up.”
Newsom’s proposal to boost oil drilling is “a recognition that there’s a problem,” Walz added.
At the national level, meanwhile, the Trump administration has rolled back Biden-era climate policies, revoking the electric vehicle mandate and halting offshore wind leases. The administration in late June announced a Gulf of America oil and gas lease sale that would span roughly 80 million acres, an area larger than the United Kingdom.
State senator Henry Stern, a longtime opponent of expanding oil drilling, is another Democrat who has apparently had a change of heart.
“Kern County should be unleashed, and I’m there,” Stern told Republican colleagues in April. “Don’t send that to the White House, please.”
