Burgum Pushes Oil Expansion in California

In a major move to boost domestic energy security and counter rising fuel prices, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum announced the reopening of California oil operations, as outlined in a Fox News report. This represents a strong rebuke of efforts by Representative Adam Schiff and other anti-oil activists to permanently lock away millions of barrels of recoverable oil.

The Department of the Interior’s move underscores the truth California’s Legislature continues to ignore: every barrel of crude we don’t produce here must be produced elsewhere and imported, at a far greater environmental cost and much higher prices and logistical costs.

In fact, California’s own refineries were designed to run on heavy California crude. But thanks to Sacramento’s relentless efforts to shut down production over the past seven years, refiners are now forced to seek out nearly identical heavy crude from Ecuador, Colombia, and Iraq, often extracted under zero environmental or climate standards.

The Affordability Crisis Starts with Energy

CIPA commends Secretary Burgum for restoring access to domestic energy and sending a clear message that domestic oil production, especially from cleaner, more regulated California fields, must be a priority in the face of rising energy costs and energy insecurity. If California lawmakers are serious about addressing the affordability crisis, they must stop sabotaging the very industry that underpins the state's fuel supply.

Policies like Assembly Bill 1448 are moving the state in the wrong direction. AB 1448 threatens to impose new, sweeping restrictions on offshore oil production. This bill would further limit access to in-state oil, worsen our dependence on foreign regimes, and raise fuel costs for working families.

A Vote for California Oil is a Vote for Affordability

CIPA urges lawmakers to reject AB 1448 and instead embrace policies that support responsible in-state production. Doing so would:

• Preserve refinery operations by ensuring consistent supply of the right type of crude oil.

• Lower consumer prices by reducing costly imports from overseas.

• Reduce global emissions by producing oil under California’s gold-standard environmental rules.

• Strengthen national and regional energy security by keeping energy production at home.

As Secretary Burgum stated in defense of reopening offshore production, “California needs all the domestic energy it can get. Shutting down production in the name of the environment only shifts emissions to other countries.”

Time for Sacramento to Get Serious

It’s time for California’s elected leaders to align their rhetoric on affordability and climate with reality. If they want to keep refineries open, reduce gas prices, and maintain a reliable energy system, they must support every drop of oil we can responsibly produce here at home.

That begins by voting NO on AB 1448 and working to bring production back to shuttered fields across the state.