Ships under foreign flags arrive daily at ports of call up and down California’s coastline carrying a precious cargo that the State can produce itself, yet it imports it because the powers that be won’t let California’s historically successful oil industry tap into the resources already available.
International trade of commodities, services, and goodwill is a great thing. But California is importing crude oil from foreign countries at the rate of more than 354 million barrels annually which is more than half of its crude oil needs via air polluting ships that traverse the Panama Canal, at a cost of 60 million dollars every single day because there is no delivery system over the Sierra Mountains or across the precious Mojave Desert to get the oil produced here in America to the energy island known as California and no one is saying a word about it.
During the Second World War the unifying catch phrase was “loose lips sink ships”. Today’s cultural behavior should be “silence is deadly”. The sheer numbers of wasted dollars going out the window should make people scream bloody murder but is anyone talking about that? No.
The following is a frank discussion of the facts, if mentioned aloud, should/would bring this insanity to a halt almost overnight.
California increased its crude oil imports from foreign countries from five percent in 1992 to a whopping 56 percent in 2017. Even though the state sits on or adjacent to the largest shale and ocean reserves (potential oil producing entities) in the country, namely the Monterey Shale and Pacific Ocean, the legislature led by the current governor will not increase or discuss in-state production of crude oil. Their minds are made up and the silence is deafening if not deadly.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the United States is now the largest global crude oil producer, surpassing Russia and Saudi Arabia. All of America, except California, has become less dependent on crude oil from the turbulent Middle East.
Has anyone read the recent Rand research study on imported oil being a threat to U.S. National Security? If they had, they’re certainly not talking about it. The report contends the United States would benefit from policies that diminish the sensitivity of the U.S. economy to an abrupt decline in the supply of foreign crude oil to the 5th largest economy in the world.
What’s dangerous about the abrupt halt of this madness, whether the catalyst was internal or external, and the nations that export oil to California will suffer a blow to their economies that could affect their relationship with the whole USA possibly creating a national security risk. No one wants to go to the dinner table with hungry homeless and confess we are no longer serving complimentary filet mignon. It may anger the mob causing a backlash heard round the world.
My recent November Op Ed article published in Washington, D.C. has been drawing national attention that addressed “Is California becoming a National Security Risk to the U.S.?” Shortly after the article appeared, Larry Marino from AM 860(KRLA) initiated an eleven minute interview with me based on the Op Ed.
At a December 12, 2018 event at the Orange County Business Council (OCBC.org) Joint Meeting of the OCBC Government Affairs and Workforce Development Committees I attended, the newly elected California Speaker of the Assembly, Anthony Rendon (D) who represents the 63rd District in the California State Assembly was the keynote speaker.
During the Q&A I asked the honorable Mr. Renton how he felt about exploring and developing the confirmed oil reserves and the workforce development in California to avert the state from being a National Security Risk to America.
Speaker Rendon’s unassertive reply was, “With the incoming Governor Gavin Newsom in total agreement with the outgoing Governor Brown’s policies, there is no chance of accessing those oil reserves in California
Somehow Californians are proud (or oblivious) to the fact that the state is a National Security Risk to America. The State is also proud to be the leader in the renewables industry, requiring 100% renewables by 2045, and being a leader in the get-off-fossil fuels crusade.
If Californians silently follow the get-off fossil fuels leaders like Al Gore, former Governors Jerry Brown and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Steyer, newly elected U.S. Representative Alexander Ocasio-Cortez with her “Green New Deal”, and now Governor Gavin Newsom who are pushing the state toward eliminating the use of fossil fuels altogether in less time than it takes the native Joshua tree to mature, they will see a bleak future where many companies that depend on constant energy flow instead of the intermittent energy that comes from solar and wind products will shut down, creating havoc to the economy of the Golden State that would reverberate throughout America.
In conclusion, we cannot ignore the role fossil fuels play in creating thousands of products we use in our everyday lives. The smart thing to do is to find that happy medium where we manage fossil fuel use along with oil, solar, wind and other sustainable energy resources to create an intermutually cooperative alliance where they will be utilized in a grid that helps all mankind in the foreseeable future and even into the future we cannot predict.
This piece originally appeared on Fox&Hounds.
Ronald Stein is the Founder and Ambassador for Energy & Infrastructure at PTS Advance headquartered in Irvine, California and a researcher and commentator on climate, energy, environment and public policy.
Photo: Via howstuffworks.com.
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