Dude … he’s running.
For president in 2028? Certainly, but mainly, Gavin Newsom needs to run away from the disastrous policies that have created an economic nightmare in California. After spending an entire career attacking fossil fuel production and use in California, the specter of economic collapse looms as two major refineries announced closures in the near future. Suddenly, Newsom wants a conversation rather than a hydrocarbon-free future, Politico reports — and they aren’t nice about it, either:
California Gov. Gavin Newsom spent the last four years provoking the big oil boogeyman. Now, it’s haunting him.
Newsom’s casting of Big Oil as the villain behind the state’s perpetually high fuel prices signaled the industry’s waning influence in Sacramento. But the plot took a dramatic turn for the governor and his party when two refineries in the state announced closure plans.
“Refineries all across the globe are struggling,” Newsom said last month in unveiling a suite of proposals to keep refineries solvent, including holding talks with potential buyers and offering incentives to boost in-state oil drilling. “We’ve got some challenges, and so just require some new considerations.”
The about-face is emblematic of Democrats’ course correction on cost-of-living issues in the wake of the presidential election — and provides a real-time demonstration of the political risks of pursuing an aggressive transition away from fossil fuels.
Political risks? Sure, but where was Politico when the economic risks began emerging years ago? Under Newsom and his predecessor Jerry Brown, California began limiting and outright blocking the development and use of fossil fuels for California’s energy needs. The state has suffered through rolling brownouts most years since, and avoided more of them by purchasing electricity from neighboring states that do not limit themselves in that manner.
Basically, Newsom and the Democrat establishment gave themselves the worst of both worlds. They still had to rely on fossil fuels to meet their energy needs, but had to pay a premium to buy it under emergency conditions. They also don’t get the job creation benefit of producing it themselves in their own state. It has achieved nothing except to kneecap California’s economy and its middle class especially.
Now, after decades of regulatory strangulation, not only has the state failed to keep up with the refining necessary to meet demand for vehicles, but its Democrat establishment has chased off the refineries that remain. The economic consequences of those policies are already enormous, with gas prices more than double that of other states, which pushes up prices across the board thanks to skyrocketing transportation costs embedded into goods and services. Those two refineries represent 20% or so of the state’s remaining capacity for producing its own gasoline (and its special formulations) and other refined petroleum products. Their closing will create even less supply for still-increasing demand, which means $6 a gallon will become $8 a gallon soon, perhaps on its way to an even higher threshold.
Middle-class capital has fled California for the better part of a decade. Newsom’s war on fossil fuels is a big reason why. That war started before Newsom became governor, but as Politico points out, Newsom went much further in attempting to kill fossil-fuel production and use in the Brownout State:
Newsom took over from former Gov. Jerry Brown in 2019 and quickly went even further than his predecessor by not only pushing for policies that reduce demand for gas — like electric vehicle incentives — but also by attempting to reduce supply. He announced a ban on fracking in 2021 and signed a law that restricts oil drilling near sensitive sites like schools and hospitals. He also spearheaded a lawsuit to hold major oil companies liable for climate change damages and legislation to consider a cap on oil industry profits, while castigating the industry as a corrupt force fleecing Californians.
Greasy Gavin now wants to play nice. Why? Newsom wants to run for president in the next cycle, and his track record of massive failure has begun to attract attention in the same way that offal attracts flies. Even Democrats are trying to distance themselves from Newsom and his war on fossil fuels, Politico reports, and so are the climate-change activists to whom Newsom wanted to pander. Now they’re talking about “reading the room,” and worrying that Calfornia’s high gas prices could derail Democrat hopes for midterm gains everywhere, especially if Newsom emerges as a leading candidate for the 2028 nomination.
It’s probably too late for that now. Newsom and Democrats enthusiastically created the conditions they now seek to reverse, while notably refusing to accept responsibility for the outcomes of their war on fossil fuels. The state is losing mid-level capital every day, and it has thus far refused to make any substantial changes to reverse these trends. So far, this is akin to applying a cloth patch to the hole in the Titanic, if not merely rearranging the deck chairs. The ship is going down, and Newsom and the Democrat establishment may just as well start playing “Nearer My God To Thee,” if they ever bother to acknowledge anyone but themselves as The Almighty.
Editor’s Note: The Democrat Party has never been less popular as voters reject its globalist agenda.
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