California’s Fuels Transition: Who Pays the Price?
- Aug 19, 2025
- 2 min read
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 19, 2025
SACRAMENTO, CA — As the California State Assembly’s Natural Resources, Transportation, Utilities, and Energy Committee holds a hearing tomorrow, Wednesday, August 20, 2025, at 1:30 p.m. PDT, California’s small independent producers are warning lawmakers not to ignore the economic, community, and environmental consequences of importing more foreign oil while dismantling in-state production.
California now imports more oil from the Amazon rainforest than it produces at home. Today, the state imports more than 78% of the oil it consumes, despite demand for petroleum products rising over the past decade. Every imported barrel comes with a $5–$7 surcharge, driving California gas prices higher than the rest of the nation.
The costs go beyond the pump. More than 55,000 Californians earn an average of $123,000 a year in the oil and gas industry, many with only a high school degree. These are middle-class jobs that provide dignity, security, and stability. By trading California workers for foreign oil, the state is hollowing out communities and undermining its own economy.
“This so-called ‘just transition’ is anything but just,” said Rock Zierman, CEO of the California Independent Petroleum Association. “Small independent producers in California operate under the toughest environmental and labor standards in the world. Eliminating these jobs and replacing them with foreign imports is bad for workers, bad for affordability, and bad for our environment. If this is truly about a transition, why import more oil when demand has gone up, not down? And where are the replacement jobs?”
Critics also note the environmental contradictions. Importing more oil means adding dozens of tankers to the seas and thousands of trucks to California’s highways, all to bring in crude and gasoline from countries completely exempt from California’s environmental, health, and labor protections. How does replacing local production with polluting imports make sense for California’s communities or the planet?
Independent producers stress the need for common-sense policies that balance energy demand with affordability and community well-being. Every barrel produced in California supports local jobs, local tax revenue, and strict environmental protections. These are standards foreign suppliers do not meet.
Zierman continued, “California producers stand ready to decrease imports by producing more energy locally, under the state’s strict environmental regulations. CIPA supports the Governor’s proposal to codify the Kern County oil and gas ordinance as CEQA-compliant to unleash domestic production. California continues to be home to some of the most prolific oil fields in the world. If producers get the permits they need, in-state production will increase, refineries will stay open, and fuel prices will go down.
“The last barrels of oil that California needs should come from California.”
CONTACT
Hector Barajas
