Iran War Exposes Weakness of California’s ‘Green’ Dependence on Foreign Oil
Ultimately California has been digging itself a deep hole on energy for decades.
California is a beacon for smart people. Yet we seem to excel in producing policies that hurt ourselves.
This is particularly clear in the present energy crisis. The showdown in the Strait of Hormuz has raised oil prices worldwide, but it is also unmasking the sheer idiocy of California’s current energy regime.
For more than a decade, California has been waging war on its own fossil fuel industry. Once, the Golden State was a major energy exporter. But regulators, steeped in green religion, have decided that we will eventually drive electric vehicles — and that we will fill our tanks with gas imported from somewhere else in the meantime.
As a result, California is the only state in the Lower 48 that relies on oil and refined petroleum from other parts of the world. Previously, much came from Russia, but now it comes largely from the Persian Gulf.
Oops.
California is now on the hook to a part of the world that is well known for fanatical anti-Americanism and piratical regimes.
That we pay a premium is obvious, as we have no pipelines from the Middle East, or even from Texas. Our chosen reliance on green energy also has made the state the nation’s largest importer of electricity, and one of the few states that is a net importer of oil and gas.
Once, California accounted for 40% of US oil production. It now accounts for a mere 2% of US oil output, and relies uniquely on foreign supplies for its own needs, including for refined petroleum.
Meanwhile, other parts of the country are getting richer with the price increases. Ships diverted from the Persian Gulf are now headed to the Gulf of Mexico (“Gulf of America,” in Trumpian), but not to the ports of Los Angeles or Oakland.
“North America is now an energy superpower,” suggests industry analyst Robert Bryce. “But California is just screwed in so many ways.”
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