California is a beacon for smart people. Yet we seem to excel in producing policies that hurt ourselves.
This is particularly clear in the present energy crisis. Theshowdown in the Strait of Hormuzhas raised oil prices worldwide, but it is also unmasking the sheer idiocy of California’s current energy regime.
For more than a decade, California has been waging war on its ownfossil fuel industry. Once, the Golden State was a major energy exporter. But regulators, steeped in green religion, have decided that we will eventually drive electric vehicles — and that we will fill our tanks withgas imported from somewhere elsein the meantime.
As a result, California is the only state in the Lower 48 that relies onoil and refined petroleumfrom other parts of the world. Previously, much came from Russia, but now it comes largely fromthe Persian Gulf.
California is now on the hook to a part of the world that is well known for fanatical anti-Americanism and piratical regimes.
That we pay a premium is obvious, as we have no pipelines from the Middle East, or even from Texas. Our chosen reliance on green energy also has made the state the nation’slargest importer of electricity, and one of the few states that is a net importer of oil and gas.
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Once,Californiaaccounted for 40% of US oil production. It now accounts for a mere 2% of US oil output, and relies uniquely on foreign supplies for its own needs, including for refined petroleum.
Meanwhile, other parts of the country are getting richer with the price increases. Ships diverted from the Persian Gulf are now headed tothe Gulf of Mexico(“Gulf of America,” in Trumpian), but not to the ports of Los Angeles or Oakland.
“North America is now an energy superpower,” suggests industry analyst Robert Bryce. “But California is just screwed in so many ways.”
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
