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California Loses Another Oil Refinery – Gas Prices to Rise 75% by 2026
Armstrong Economics ^ | 8 May 25 | Martin Armstrong

Posted on 05/08/2025 7:39:11 AM PDT by delta7

Oil refinery Valero has opted to close its operations in California due to excessive regulations on energy. Located in the small city of Benicia, the town is expected to lose 400 jobs, which the mayor is calling the exit “a major hit on the city.” Everyone in California is feeling the impact of Newsom’s war on fossil fuels.

Valero said its decision ” follows years of regulatory pressure, significant fines for air quality violations, and a recent lawsuit settlement related to environmental concerns.” “California has been pursuing policies to move away from fossil fuels for really for the past 20 years.

And the consequence of that is the regulatory and enforcement environment is the most stringent and difficult of anywhere else in North America,” Valero CEO Lane Riggs told reporters. His company faced $82 million in fines dating back to 2003 for emissions, marking the highest penalty issued in the Bay Area Air District.

Energy company Phillips 66 abandoned its operations in Los Angeles last year, citing long-term instability due to political policy. California’s refining capacity has declined 21% over the past three years, and as a result, gas prices are expected to rise by 75% by 2026 if major intervention is not taken.

California’s gas deficit ranges from 6.6 million to 13.1 million per day. “. Reductions in fuel supplies of this magnitude will resonate throughout multiple supply chains affecting production, costs, and prices across many industries such as air travel, food delivery, agricultural production, manufacturing, electrical power generation, distribution, groceries, and healthcare,” University of Southern California professor Michael A. Mische stated after studying California’s history of supply and refining capacity. This will plunge the state into further debt and reduce the overall GDP for the entire nation.

California already has the highest gas prices in the nation at $4.616 per gallon. How will people afford to pay up to $8.435 per gallon in a year’s time? California’s excise tax on gas has risen 253% in the past 30 to 50 years, while the number of cars has increased by 38% and the population increased by nearly a quarter.

“Meanwhile, the number of refineries has declined by 56%, in-state oil field production has fallen by 63%, finished gasoline stocks have declined by 98%, in-state daily refinery capacity has decreased by 36%, average gasoline prices for all formulations have gone up by 253%, and imports of non-U.S. foreign oil increased 712%,” Mishe reported,

Newsom had hoped to implement a ban on fossil fuel vehicles but was overruled. Voters cheer when he states he will tax and charge refineries for emissions, but they fail to realize that those charges will be passed down to everyone. The governor is eyeing the White House and believes he can implement these same failed policies at the federal level.


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: california; consequences; ecoterrorism; ecoterrorists; gas; gavinnewsom; globalwarminghoax; greennewdeal; karenbass; losangeles; madnessofcrowds; regulations; savingplanetearth; tulipmania; valero
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To: delta7

One thing to consider also. The demand on ALL refineries has been 100% for decades now because they would let them build any new refineries. So every time even one refinery goes down the demand on all the others goes up. Which in turn causes the companies to raise prices across the board Nationally so we ALL pay for California’s screw ups like it or not. Every refinery is a National issue and National problem.


21 posted on 05/08/2025 9:09:18 AM PDT by Openurmind
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To: delta7

Without any major pipelines from the rest of the US, California has to import a proportion of its oil and gas from abroad. Despite having ample reserves and (having had) ample refining capacity. Under Newsome’s regime, Cali is the great poster child for progressive stupidity.


22 posted on 05/08/2025 9:11:42 AM PDT by hinckley buzzard ( Resist the narrative. )
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To: Openurmind

He Is. Trump is in process of dealing with his through the courts.


23 posted on 05/08/2025 9:13:22 AM PDT by hinckley buzzard ( Resist the narrative. )
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To: Openurmind

Considering the industrial manufacturing construction down in tge valley, and the effect it will have on LV, i suspect this could get interesting real quick.

Money talks and bullshit walks.

If AZ, NV had elected officials with guts, theyd go through the Trump administration and work with Mexico to get oil up here, refine it and forget CA altogether.

But, that requires kickbacks, payoffs and bribes. And at the present, that entails the cartels.


24 posted on 05/08/2025 9:15:53 AM PDT by crz
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To: ETCM
We also need to re-fill the strategic petroleum reserve that Biden significantly emptied

Especially with OPEC+ turning the taps wide open to depress the price of crude. WTI Crude (West Texas benchmark) is under $60/barrel. Filling the reserve will help support US energy production while OPEC+ tries to depress our production.

25 posted on 05/08/2025 9:26:47 AM PDT by Freedumb
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To: hinckley buzzard

Courts? He needs to declare an emergency...


26 posted on 05/08/2025 9:27:06 AM PDT by Openurmind
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To: delta7

Maybe CA would like it if their share of the water from the Colorado river got suspended.


27 posted on 05/08/2025 9:27:37 AM PDT by crz
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To: hinckley buzzard

By the time the liberal courts get to it, it will over and done with.

This is in the 9th circus court you know.


28 posted on 05/08/2025 9:31:36 AM PDT by crz
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To: Openurmind

He can.
Yuma proving grounds...etc.

Might be prudent to have a hell of a refinery built there...by and for obvious reasons.


29 posted on 05/08/2025 9:33:45 AM PDT by crz
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To: delta7

I wish these companies that are forced out would stop sending fuel to California. Then all the rest of us wouldn’t continue to be flogged for stupid policies out there.


30 posted on 05/08/2025 10:46:53 AM PDT by FoxInSocks ("Hope is not a course of action." — M. O'Neal, USMC)
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To: Openurmind

So PDJT should declare an emergency and do what . . . nationalize CA oil refineries?

<>Valero CEO Lane Riggs told reporters. His company faced $82 million in fines dating back to 2003 for emissions.<>

State law will remain.

PDJT cannot repeal state laws.

Sorry your situation stinks.


31 posted on 05/08/2025 2:05:32 PM PDT by Jacquerie (ArticleVBlog.com)
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To: Jacquerie

Good to know you are Newsom’s little sidekick...

The concept of Interstate Commerce and energy supply is apparently over your head.


32 posted on 05/08/2025 2:39:43 PM PDT by Openurmind
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To: Openurmind

I assumed you wouldn’t have an answer.

I was right.


33 posted on 05/08/2025 3:21:09 PM PDT by Jacquerie (ArticleVBlog.com)
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To: Jacquerie

You need to educate yourself before you get so arrogant and think you are more intelligent than others.

“What does the NEA mean for the president and Congress?

The act allows the executive branch to declare a national emergency, but the president must cite the specific emergency powers he is activating to make the declaration under existing statutes. There are hundreds of provisions of federal law that delegate the president “extraordinary authority in time of national emergency,” according to the Congressional Research Service. The 2007 CRS report notes, “the vast majority of them are of the stand-by kind — dormant until activated by the President.”

“According to the report: “Under the powers delegated by such statutes, the President may seize property, organize and control the means of production, seize commodities, assign military forces abroad, institute martial law, seize and control all transportation and communication, regulate the operation of private enterprise, restrict travel, and, in a variety of ways, control the lives of United States citizens.”

https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2019-01-08/what-is-a-national-emergency-and-when-can-a-president-legally-declare-one

And he already has... He just needs to do is act on it with this situation...

“By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) (“NEA”), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, it is hereby ordered:

Section 1. Purpose. The energy and critical minerals (“energy”) identification, >leasing, development, production, transportation, refining, and generation capacity of the United States are all far too inadequate to meet our Nation’s needs. We need a reliable, diversified, and affordable supply of energy to drive our Nation’s manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, and defense industries, and to sustain the basics of modern life and military preparedness.< Caused by the harmful and shortsighted policies of the previous administration, our Nation’s inadequate energy supply and infrastructure causes and makes worse the high energy prices that devastate Americans, particularly those living on low- and fixed-incomes.

This active threat to the American people from high energy prices is exacerbated by our Nation’s diminished capacity to insulate itself from hostile foreign actors. Energy security is an increasingly crucial theater of global competition. In an effort to harm the American people, hostile state and non-state foreign actors have targeted our domestic energy infrastructure, weaponized our reliance on foreign energy, and abused their ability to cause dramatic swings within international commodity markets. An affordable and reliable domestic supply of energy is a fundamental requirement for the national and economic security of any nation.”

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/declaring-a-national-energy-emergency/

So I will accept your apology for being wrong, uneducated, and arrogant by not doing your homework first before you lash out...

Have the integrity to take it back???


34 posted on 05/08/2025 3:40:27 PM PDT by Openurmind
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To: delta7

There is a .65 cent tax increase coming soon that will add to the price even more.
Calif gas price is already about twice as expensive as most states.


35 posted on 05/09/2025 12:31:57 AM PDT by minnesota_bound (Need more money to buy everything now)
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To: Openurmind

Thank you for sharing your emotions.


36 posted on 05/09/2025 2:32:08 AM PDT by Jacquerie (ArticleVBlog.com)
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To: Jacquerie

And thank you for sharing your sadistic tendencies... Lot to say for someone who searches the board just looking for someone to stone. It is a sadistic fetish...


37 posted on 05/09/2025 2:48:11 AM PDT by Openurmind
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