Report Says California Energy Policies a ”Clear and Present Threat to National Security”; Calls for Federal Intervention
California’s energy policies and its “inability to effectively manage the current refinery closings and in-state oil production crisis” could contribute to supply chain disruptions for military fuels and “compromise U.S. force readiness and national security,” according to a new report from California Assemblyman Stan Ellis, USC Professor Michael Mische, and Michael Ariza.
“California has the most severe restrictions regulating the oil, refining, and fuels industries in the world,” the report states. The state’s energy policies and regulations “have led to the closure of two major refineries which now threaten essential pipelines that provide crude oil and fuel supplies to California’s surviving refineries, civilian markets, and military installations, as well as those in Arizona and Nevada,” it states.
The report argues that a “pending gasoline and aviation fuels crisis” comes as a result of “government policies and regulatory actions, as well as years of politicians demonizing refiners and producers as ‘price gougers’ without economic proof…”
Dependence on Foreign Imports
The report notes that California produces less than 23% of its own in-state petroleum needs and imports over 65% of its crude oil from foreign sources. “Rather than investing in its state’s resources and employment, California’s policies necessitate paying petrostates, such as Iraq and Saudi Arabia, over $60 million a day for crude oil imports,” the report states.
California will also be buying “non-U.S. foreign gasoline, some of which may be made from Iranian and Russian oil.” The report states that “as a direct result of its political and regulatory policies, California will be knowingly financing and, perhaps to some extent, aiding and abetting America’s potentially most menacing adversaries.”
Fuel for Military Installations
California has more than 50 military installations, the report notes, and supplies fuel to military bases in Nevada and Arizona, as those states are largely dependent on California gasoline.
The report concludes that the state, “through its history of legislative actions and the consequential implications leading to the loss of in-state oil production, pipeline capacities, and refinery losses, has demonstrated its incapability to recognize and inability to preserve the national security interests of the nation, as well as the economic interests of neighboring states, with respect to energy production.”
Call for Federal Intervention
The report outlines policy options “to mitigate the actions of California and protect the security interests of the U.S. as related to California as related to petroleum and refinery assets.”
These include the president declaring “California oil production pipelines, terminals, ports, refineries, and all related infrastructure as essential assets…” under the Defense Protection Act (DPA). The president could also provide temporary relief to California producers, operators, and refiners under the national Emergencies Act. Lastly, the report states that the president “may have constitutional powers for protecting California gasoline production and other petroleum assets, potentially through operation of the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.”
The report concludes that “California and the nation can ill afford a self-engineered and created California gasoline and aviation fuel crisis. Both the economic and national security interests are profoundly influenced, and sadly, compromised by California’s political sentiment and legislative actions related to refinery operations and oil production.”