Capitol Weekly welcomes Opinions on California public policy or politics. Please read our guidelines for opinion pieces before submitting an Op-Ed. Submissions that do not adhere to our guidelines will not be considered for publication.
OPINION – It’s impossible for Californians not to notice skyrocketing gas prices, and those prices hit the poor and working poor the hardest. Commuting for work is still a reality for the many workers who can’t do their jobs from a computer at home and the vast majority of working Californians still drive conventional gas-powered cars.
The most recent price spikes are connected to the state of conflict in Iran. California gets approximately a third of its oil from the Persian Gulf and tankers are now being blocked from exiting at the Strait of Hormuz.
The real problem, however, isn’t the war in the Gulf. The real problem is years of failure by California’s political leaders to effectively address our state’s energy security issues. While most of the country is energy independent as a result of advanced oil technology developed in the last 30 years, California has gone the other way.
Once one of America’s top three oil producers along with Texas and Alaska, California now must rely on imports for 70 percent of our oil. SB 1137, an oil setback law more restrictive than any similar rule in the country, is further restricting local energy production.
Refineries are also leaving and we’ve lost so much refining capacity that we now must import refined fuel all the way from the Bahamas. And if that was not enough, yet another major refinery — Valero’s Benicia facility — is currently in the process of shutting down.
Click here to read the article at Capitol Weekly.