America’s economy and national security are heavily reliant on California, the 4th largest economy in the world.
Ronald Stein, P.E., is an engineer, columnist on energy literacy at America Out Loud NEWS, and advisor on energy literacy for the Heartland Institute and CFACT, and co-author of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated book “Clean Energy Exploitations.” He is also the recipient of an unsolicited Tribute to Ronald Stein from Stephen Hines.
Mike Umbro is an energy entrepreneur, innovator, and advocate for affordable, reliable, and locally produced energy in California. As **founder** of the nonprofit **Californians for Energy & Science**, he leads efforts to research and highlight the economic, environmental, and security benefits of in-state energy production, including oil, gas, geothermal, and emerging technologies like Geologic Thermal Energy Storage (GeoTES).He’s a vocal proponent of unleashing California’s natural resources to reduce reliance on imports, lower costs for consumers, and support jobs and innovation in the state.
Co-authored by Ronald Stein and Mike Umbro
Published March 16, 2026 in America Out Loud NEWS
California’s high regulatory burden and taxes have been the basis of corporate business decisions to leave California for more pro-business locations to run a business. The exodus out of California includes such majors as Tesla, Oracle, Chevron, SpaceX, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Charles Schwab, and Yamaha, that have relocated headquarters from California to states with lower taxes and regulations.
An increasingly adversarial policy environment has already contributed to recent refinery closures in California that have significantly reduced U.S. West Coast refining capacity, raising concerns about fuel shortages and price spikes. Key shutdowns include Phillips 66’s Los Angeles refinery (late 2025) and the Valero Benicia refinery (scheduled for April 2026), removing roughly 20% of California’s gasoline supply.
With no crude oil pipelines over the Sierra Mountains, California, the 4th largest economy in the world, is an “Energy Island” separated from the crude oil supply, and the infrastructure of oil refineries from the other 49 States. Thus, all in-state California transportation fuel demands for the military, ships, airports, cars, and trucks have staggering numbers FROM in-state refineries.
California’s economy faces threats with new energy policy changes as the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the agency responsible for enforcing air‑quality polices in the state—has proposed new limits on greenhouse gas emissions for local businesses. These changes pose serious risks to California’s cost of living, job security and reliable supply chains of transportation fuels.
With the California “Energy Island” losing refineries, and CARB tightening the noose further, we’ll be losing more CA refineries at the time that the 4th largest economy in the world NEEDS new refineries to be built IN CALIFORNIA. The recent announcement of a new Reliance refinery in Brownsville in Texas will be useless to the demands on the California “Energy Island”. California remains a national security risk to America.
CARB’s Proposed Cap-and-Invest Regulation will upend California’s transportation fuels market and threaten critical energy and national security assets and raise the price of gasoline, jet, and diesel fuels, impact California jobs, and threaten national security for America.
Transportation fuel supply declines from refinery closures are resulting in steep, sudden declines in production capacity of gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, and bunker fuel for the 1,000’s of merchant ships serving three of the busiest ports on the West Coast.
Affordability is a top concern for California residents, and these proposed amendments would only exacerbate the high cost of living in the state. For consumers, weakened refinery operations translate into tighter fuel supply, greater price volatility, and higher gasoline prices, particularly during periods of peak demand. Reduced in‑state production increases reliance on costly and slow‑to‑arrive foreign imports that are ill‑suited to respond to supply shocks and carry higher lifecycle emissions.
California’s in‑state refining system plays an important role in supporting U.S. energy security, Military readiness, national defense, including military defense installations in the state that could be compromised if this CARB policy is finalized. California refineries supply a broad range of transportation fuels, including aviation fuels that are critical to commercial and military operations, and they operate near major ports, military installations, and strategic hubs serving the Pacific region.
Continued erosion of California’s refining capacity risks increased reliance on imported fuels that are slower to arrive, more exposed to global supply disruptions, and less reliable during emergencies or periods of heightened geopolitical risk.
Refinery closures in California reduce fuel supply resilience on the West Coast, increasing risks to military readiness and national security. Maintaining a stable policy framework that supports continued operation of California refineries is therefore not only an economic and consumer affordability issue, but also a matter of broader national security and national defense.
The proposed CARB regulation changes will cripple the survivability of the State’s remaining refineries, which will result in California losing the entire refining industry to this misguided CARB program.
The California energy industry’s economic, industrial, environmental, and national security benefits have been the foundation of a healthy, prosperous state and nation. Adversarial policies at local, regional and state levels have eroded that foundation. These proposed CARB regulatory changes threaten to destroy it and cause lasting and irreversible harm to California’s economy and energy security and broader vital American interests.
The California energy island will be increasing dependent on imported transportation fuels from new refineries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
The supply chain of fuels and products refined from raw crude oil will face severe imbalance, leading to higher costs and shortages for future generations. In the future, new refinery units that are planned or announced in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East will be providing the transportation fuel to California’s 9 international airports, 41 military airports, and 3 of the largest shipping ports!
YES, California will be a national security risk for the entire country!
Africa, Asia, and the Middle East are moving forward with new refineries to meet worldwide demands. New refinery units are planned or announced, mostly in poorer developing countries, to process crude oil into the products and fuels demanded by those living on this planet, to begin operations worldwide by 2030.
Approximately 181 new oil refinery projects are planned or announced to commence operations in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East between 2024 and 2030, with Africa leading with roughly 70–89 projects, followed by Asia and the Middle East. These regions are driving global capacity growth, with significant investments aimed at meeting rising demand, shifting away from aging, less efficient facilities in other parts of the world.
California policymakers seem to be unaware that other more business-friendly States may be a better business decision for in-state manufacturers, and that Africa, Asia, and the Middle East are savoring the future with their many refineries coming online to meet the supply chain of products and transportation fuel DEMANDS of California.
Again, the proposed CARB regulation changes will cripple the survivability of the State’s remaining refineries, which will result in California losing the entire refining industry to this misguided CARB program.
Please share this information with teachers, students, and friends to encourage Energy Literacy conversations at the family dinner table.
New energy policies in UK Open up the North Sea? No.
Serve warmer beer to save on bills, Miliband tells pubs
Pubs should serve warmer beer and turn off ovens to save money on their energy bills, Ed Miliband has said…
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/03/17/serve-warmer-beer-to-save-on-bills-miliband-tells-pubs/
A real moron
Pay-walled link
Dig deep – we have to!
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Every businessman that I know, is constantly looking for ways to save money.
They don’t need politicians to tell them how to run their business.
On the other hand, I’ve never met a liberal who didn’t believe he/she knew more about how to run a business than did the people who’s livelihoods are on the line.
Not to worry it’s all going to run on windmills solar panels and batteries in Hochul/Mamdani land-
Governor Hochul PANICS After Constellation Energy SHUTS DOWN 3 Nuclear Plants in New York!
Governor Healey here in Wokeachusetts spoke yesterday- doubling down on green energy to solve the high cost of energy. She was backed up by her agency leaders. Not a single “journalist” in the audience dared challenge her.
I’ve seen no official announcement that Constellation will be closing those three New York nuclear plants, nor have I heard anything through the nuclear rumor grapevine that the alleged plant closures are in the works.
I researched that in depth.
The link is to a YouTube video.
It is fake.
It even admits in the expanded description that images and voices (not all) are AI generated.
There are no corroborating websites via 30 pages of google search, but there are many about new startups and restarts (3 Mi. Island for example) being done by Constellation Energy as well as Hochul planning a new nuke generator to come online in the next several years.
There is nothing on any of the applicible government websites with anything about Constellation Energy shutting down nuke sites in NY or anywhere.
You got sucked in, my friend.
So did I, at first.
If these alleged closures were actually in the works, but hadn’t been formally announced yet, we in the nuclear industry would have heard about it months ago. It’s 100% fake news.
But the YouTuber got tons of likes!
That’s the point, isn’t it.
“With the California “Energy Island” losing refineries, and CARB tightening the noose further, we’ll be losing more CA refineries at the time that the 4th largest economy in the world NEEDS new refineries to be built IN CALIFORNIA.”
Let them screw it up … that will end the problem once and for all. People will remember for a long time the headlines and the front-page stories and TV news about long lines at the pumps and lost jobs and the high prices that will result.
And maybe they’ll get a new governor as a bonus.
From a different “party,” if California voters have any brains.
Don’t ask much, do you?
Maybe they need to regain their status as the Republic of California, and be cut off from our money, since they will be a different country.
California, you ARE the weakest link. Goodbye.
Wells Fargo is leaving CA for FL.
Here in Wokeachusetts- I still here people saying the Democrats should anoint Gruesome for the presidency. I hope they do as he’ll get creamed worse than Harris.
California is the 4th largest economic failure after Germany. UK, and Spain.
Latest I found was 5th.
The liberal politicians in CA are trying to get a “wealth tax” proposition on the ballot for the Nov midterms. If it passes, there will be an, allegedly, one-time 5% tax on all net worth over 1 billion dollars payable over 5 years. Residents as of Jan. 1, 2026 will be subject to this tax.
I can’t think of a more efficient way to drive investment capital out of an economy than by threatening to take it away. They must think that people with a net worth north of a billion dollars just sit around all day in their mansions on stacks of money.
So, the people with large investments in California are heading (or in this case have already headed) for the exits.
So, yeah, 4th or 5th largest economy now. But give it time. I am an upper middle class resident in CA and once my career comes to an end in a few years, my residency in this horribly mismanaged state comes to an end with it.
LOOKING forward to that point in the future when the howls of the libtards are heard as Pres. Trump in his 3rd year as president announces the federalization of petroleum production and refining in the state of California under national emergency clauses already existent on the books thereby nullifying every act, motion, rule and promulgated regulation by elected or unelected boards or panels created by the CA state legislature and / or approved or invoked by the governor of California.
Cue up the lawsuits, which will take forever, and the injunctions by in-state district court judges and the Ninth Circuit, which will uphold them. By the time the lawsuits actually get decided, they will be moot, since California will see and maybe fix some of their problems.
Maybe.
Or maybe the San Andreas fault will save us all future consternation by dumping the State into the Pacific.
Or maybe CA secedes.
Or maybe Mexico reclaims CA.
Or maybe CA turns red?
Be still my racing heart at just the though of west coast sanity.
CARB is simply not accustomed to operating rationally. I participated in a meeting with them on asbestos removal from automobile brakes several decades ago. During the discussions, a participant brought up the point that the bulk of airborne asbestos in California came from dust from a gravel road that contained asbestos deposits. Others gave presentations indicating that the vast majority of asbestos in brakes was totally constrained by resins in the brake linings and was transformed into benign compounds because of high contact temperatures in the wear process.
I spoke, somewhat in jest, that the auto companies should get together and pave the subject road. That would remove far more asbestos than would otherwise be saved from elimination from brakes.
The CARB leader turned to me with a scowl, and scornfully announced: “You won’t, because I have the authority to regulate YOU… They take their authority seriously.
CARBs policy is “Demand the impossible”.
Or stated another way – insignificant changes at any cost
On what basis does California’s claim to being the 4th largest economy in the world rest? The exodus of high tech (read: computer related), aerospace, entertainment, and venture capital leaves it with its formerly enormous agricultural output. I understand that is dwindling. Is it based on the enormous expenditures made by the government? I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that it is. But that is the opposite of economic activity. In fact, it is simply the destruction of wealth.
Last I checked, CA was 5th.
There is a lot of federal land in CA. Based on national security needs alone, can the Feds not drill refine and store products on those lands? Priority delivery system to defense customers, followed by other national needs and CA consumers (the latter at “prevailing” CA prices).
I’m shooting from the hip here. I don’t think much of the reserves is under federal land. There is a federal oil reserve in the Central Valley. Off shore? I think more out there but there is a lot of cross-cutting federal and state regulation.
I worked at China Lake Naval Weapons Center. I was surprised at how tight environmental regulations were out on the land ranges. The sea range has its own special rules. San Nicolus Island, and I suppose San Clemente Island, is very strict from various directions – sea mammals, birds, cultural artifacts, plant and animals. It was difficult for me to do anything until I gained the trust (and friendship) of the head biologist on San Nic.
BTW, the oil platforms off Ventura that have been showing up in the news, I did put instrumentation on them for measuring various atmospheric properties. Very strict electrical safety requirements. those platforms are sketchy.
Newsom saved California.
California thinks it can change the world with its energy policies.
And it can. The Brown family controls all Indonesian oil imports and the Getty family controls all Ecuadorian imports. Guess which countries import the most crude oil into California.
If you don’t know who the Brown and Getty families are, then you are not paying attention. But every energy policy they have made holding 32 years in the governor’s office didn’t include developing any Texas pipelines or California Tidelands oil, a billion barrels of crude held in trust for the benefit of the residents of California.
Nono, that would be environmentally unsound. As for the environment in Indonesia and Ecuador, well, they’d rather not talk about that.
Once again artificial crisis created by crappy government, in this case state government. It has reached the point where as a matter of national security the feds should take control of the best refineries scheduled for shut down or already shut down. They should put out bids for private outfits to open them up and refine fuels to federal standards for use by the military and maybe border protection. US national security will not be held hostage not by California or anyone else.
What are the options if California opts to basically ban fuel? Could the federal government run a rail line from out of state up through California, seizing land as required, and run trains on it hauling fuel? I wondered about a pipeline for a moment but jet fuel and ‘tank fuel’ isn’t the same, and both differ to boat fuel.
Californian Democrats might scream, but how else could the military stay functional? Ironically it seems like the greatest threat to America isn’t China, Russia, Iran or North Korea, but those within who oppose America being functional, let alone great.