California’s state legislature may succeed in destroying its own oil industry, but it won’t change anything in the world. It will only export jobs and raise the cost-of-living here at home. Here’s a reality check. According to the Statistical Review of World Energy, in 2024, oil, natural gas, and coal contributed 87 percent of the world’s...

With war in the Middle East disrupting shipments of crude oil, we have another reason to question policies that are driving our in-state oil industry into terminal decline. To briefly recap, Californians consumed 484 million barrels of oil in 2025, with in-state production only providing 111 million barrels. The rest was imported. It doesn’t have to...

The moral argument for resuming oil drilling in California is simple: the state still relies on petroleum for fifty percent of its annual energy inputs, and until we can overcome that reliance, we should be producing it here, where it’s subject to the most responsible environmental and labor standards in the world. This argument holds up...

For anyone unconcerned about the state’s ongoing war against the oil and gas industry, or the impact it is going to have on California’s economic health and overall cost-of-living, a study released on May 5 should be required reading. With strong arguments and immutable data, USC Business Professor Michael Mische predicts that by sometime in 2026, we’ll...

According to the California Energy Commission, in 2024 daily oil consumption in California averaged not quite 1.4 million barrels per day. Meanwhile, daily refinery capacity in California is just over 1.6 million barrels per day. There is a 16 percent buffer between how much oil we use every day, and how much oil we are capable of refining. That...

California’s state legislature is determined to eliminate fossil fuel as soon as possible, with oil at the top of the list. This goal is shared by the Governor and Attorney General, along with leadership and staff at every one of the many state agencies that collectively regulate the industry. But even if this goal is...

By now most of the mega-majority Democrats in our state legislature understand basic facts about energy in California: We still derive 50 percent of our total energy from petroleum, and another 30 percent of our energy from natural gas. This makes them understandably reluctant to kill California’s oil and gas industry, and gives them pause...