California’s Oil and Gas Policies: A ‘Clear and Present Threat to National Security’

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CalGlobe

California’s self-inflicted gas crisis is a direct threat to U.S. military force readiness on the West Coast

By Katy Grimes, October 29, 2025 12:00 pm

California needs a federal intervention. Stat.

Most California residents know that California’s self-inflected gasoline crisis is not only increasing prices at the pump, but increasing dependency on foreign oil suppliers and shippers to supply fuels to the Golden State. But, do California residents know that this self-inflicted gas crisis is also a direct threat to U.S. military force readiness on the West Coast?

California Governor Gavin Newsom is presiding over perhaps the largest energy policy collapse of the oil industry, refinery operations and gasoline production in U.S. history, according to a momentous new report from California Assemblyman Stan Ellis, USC Professor Professor Michael Mische, and petroleum expert Michael Ariza.

California produces less than 23% of its own in-state petroleum needs and imports over 65% of its crude oil from foreign sources, yet the oil and gas industry in California account for nearly 8% of the state’s GDP. As Ellis, Mische and Ariza warn, without oil and gas, the other 92% of the state’s GDP would be impossible to attain.

Arizona gets nearly half of its gas from California. The vast majority of Nevada’s gas – 88% – comes from California.

California, Nevada and Arizona have 40 military bases and installations – California is home to 32 of those 40 military bases, which include:

• The Pacific Fleet based in San Diego, Alameda, and Point Loma.• United States Marines stationed at Camp Pendleton, Twenty-Nine Palms, Miramar, and Barstow.• U.S. Coast Guard ports and stations located inland and along the state’s 840-mile coastline, and from bases inland.• U.S. Air Force bases–including Los Angeles, Edwards and Travis, and missile bases such as Vandenberg.• The U.S. Navy Post-Graduate College located in Monterey.

Yet, even with this significant military presence, the new report warns that because of decades of outright regulatory hostility and punitive actions against the oil and gas industry by California Governors Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom, and Democrat politicians and bureacrats, “California’s energy policies, political sentiments, and regulatory environment have become a direct threat to U.S. military force readiness on the West Coast.”

Their conclusion is that there must be federal intervention.

The report exposes how California Governor Gavin Newsom’s energy policies are sabotaging domestic refining capacity and leaving U.S. military bases in the West vulnerable to foreign adversaries like Russia and China.

“CALIFORNIA ENERGY & FUEL POLICIES: A CLEAR AND PRESENT THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY AND FORCE READINESS?” was prepared by three powerhouse experts: Assemblyman Stan Ellis (R-Bakersfield), a quantum physics expert with 50-years of oil and gas experience in drilling engineering and chemical processing, Professor Michael Mische from the University of Southern California, and Michael Ariza, a petroleum professional and U.S. Navy veteran. They explain:

California has the most severe restrictions regulating the oil, refining, and fuels industries in the world. California’s energy policies and regulations have not only resulted in the highest gasoline prices in the nation, and the highest taxes and fees in the nation, but 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.

Assemblyman Ellis said in an interview with the Globe that California military bases could end up running out of jet and aviation fuels should a military conflict unfold.

Why? Because of Governor Newsom’s political policies resulting in shockingly detrimental and lethal regulations of the oil and gas industry.

“California has no inbound pipelines supplying crude oil, gasoline, or aviation fuels, which amplifies U.S. national security vulnerabilities. Astonishingly, over 95% of California’s inbound crude and gasoline supplies are delivered by maritime tankers, the majority of which are not U.S.-flagged vessels, including tanker ships owned by Russia’s SCF Group and China’s Cosco Shipping Energy Transportation,” Ellis told the Globe.

India is providing crude oil and gas supplies to California, and Russia and China are delivering it.

How is that for U.S. Security?

The California Energy Commission breaks down the foreign sources of crude oil to California:

California was once a leading producer and exporter of oil and crude oil products in the world. Much of California’s 20th-century economy was predicated on oil and gasoline production, which, in turn, provided the fuel to support its population growth, agricultural production, the defense industry, and later, the tech industries, the report says.

Today, California is far from self-sufficient with respect to its energy needs. “The state produces less than 23% of its own in-state petroleum needs, and imports over 65% of its crude oil from non-U.S. foreign sources, the largest of which was Iraq over the recent years.”

AAA reports that the national average price for a gallon of gas is $3.04, but California’s average price per gallon is $4.58 to $5.86 per gallon.

Mike Ariza told the Globe that within the last three years, three California bay area refineries with a total crude oil processing capacity of 322,200 barrels per day have been shut down, and some have been converted to renewable diesel fuel with no materially significant production of gasoline or jet fuel. The gasoline production loss from these refineries equals approximately 7.54 million gallons per day, a loss of nearly 20% of combined state production.

Jet fuel production from Marathon Martinez and ConocoPhillips Rodeo totaled approximately 1.3 million gallons per day (Flying J Bakersfield does not produce jet fuel). This equates to a loss of approximately 17% of in-state, daily jet fuel production.

• Phillips 66 in Los Angeles has formally terminated operations effective October 17, 2025.

• Valero’s refinery in Benicia has announced the cancellation of all of their crude oil contracts in anticipation of its permanent shut down by April of 2026.

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Combined, these two refineries produced 8.5 million gallons per day or 22% of the state’s gasoline supply. They also produce 1.2 to 1.4 million gallons of jet fuel per day. “Their loss is consequential,” Ariza said.

With the upcoming loss of Valero, California could lose 30 to 35% of its jet fuel production. Ariza said the loss of gas and jet fuel cannot be made up from other parts of the country because California does not have incoming pipelines and there are no liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers that comply with the Jones Act, which limits the transportation of LNG within the U.S.

Worse, says USC Professor Michael Mische, is that California’s lawmakers have no plan to address the inevitable crisis. “What will you replace the jet and aviation fuel with?” Mische asked. No one in the governor’s office or state Legislature is looking at it. And frankly, as the Globe has observed, they are not capable of  addressing this.

In September 2024, Governor Newsom called for a special legislative session after accusing California’s oil refineries of “price gouging.” The governor claimed that “Gas price spikes on consumers are profit spikes for oil companies, and they’re overwhelmingly caused by refiners not backfilling supplies when they go down for maintenance.”

Almost immediately, the Petroleum & Gasoline Supply Committee passed Governor Newsom’s ABX2-1, a Venezuela-like state proposal to impose new mandates for oil storage requirements on oil refineries in California to outlaw “Big Oil profit spikes.”

We asked at the time, “Why is gas more than $5 gallon in California and not across the entire country if ‘Big Oil’ is so greedy?”

Also at the time, California State Director John Kabatek of the National Federation of Independent Business warned, “California is on the verge of an energy crisis with the push for electrification by 2035. The regulation requirements in ABX2-1 will artificially create a fuel shortage crisis due to limiting the distribution of fuel.”

“This will unavoidably increase the demand, causing prices to increase,” Kabateck warned.

Professor Mische notes that importing oil from foreign sources adds 13 to 17 cents to the already high cost of gas in California.

According to the California Energy Commission, California has the highest refinery operational costs anywhere in the U.S., and when combined with California’s hostile regulatory environment and enforcement practices of refiners and producers, are some of the harshest in the world. “As a result, refineries are leaving, the in-state oil production infrastructure has atrophied, and supply is overly reliant on non-U.S. sources and shippers,” Mische said.   

“California is now facing a pending gasoline and aviation fuels crisis of potentially epic levels,” Ellis, Mische and Ariza report. “In all planning scenarios, California will be increasingly dependent on non-U.S. foreign sources for gasoline. 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.”

Professor Mische stated that in addition to buying crude oil, the Golden State will now be paying for non-U.S. foreign gasoline, some of which may be made from Iranian and Russian oil, as is India’s oil. Thus, “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.”

“U.S. military and military base operations planners routinely plan and run scenarios for fuel supplies and logistics. In fact, it is not uncommon for military planners to identify multiple alternatives for fuel sources and transportation. However, California’s policies have made the planning more complex by introducing regulatory variables which favor non-U.S. foreign sources of oil and fuels, as well as forcing reliance on non-U.S. foreign shippers. Such misguided policies and political dogma work to place the U.S. military in an unnecessarily precarious and vulnerable position. Any unscheduled refinery downtime, any pipeline outage, any supply chain interruptions, or the loss of in-bound fuels supply could compromise and potentially cripple our military readiness is unacceptable,” said Mische.

Assemblyman Ellis, Professor Mische and petroleum expert Ariza say, “In our opinion, Governor Newsom, California regulatory agencies and the Legislature, through an apparent lack of both appreciation and understanding of our nation’s security have created an unprecedented situation which puts the nation at risk. Given the gravity of the situation, and the apparent inability of California political leadership to realistically and effective address both the consumer and national security implications of their actions, it is time for the Secretaries of DOD, DHS, and DOE to intervene and pursue immediate action.” 

For the sake of national security, they implore President Trump to intervene and “take swift and decisive action by invoking the Defense Production Act as a possible means of protecting California’s vital oil production, refineries, and fuels production capabilities which are essential to the security of the United States.” 

Here is the report: CA Impact on Force Readiness

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Katy Grimes

Katy Grimes, the Editor in Chief of the California Globe, is a long-time Investigative Journalist covering the California State Capitol, the co-author of California's War Against Donald Trump: Who Wins? Who Loses? and a contributor to "Taxifornia 2016."

A California native and Navy mom, Katy lives in Sacramento, CA.