Anyone involved in the oil and gas production sector in California knows, or has heard the name, Chris Hall. Mr. Hall is the president of Drilling and Production Company, and has been a leader within the California Independent Petroleum Association (CIPA) for decades. Mr. Hall is among active CIPA members who has served as the advocacy group’s Chairman of the Board of Directors.
As Chris Hall like to say about the trend in California, “My business is to go out of business.” He obviously doesn’t appreciate having to point this fact out, but Mr. Hall is correct that California has decided to shut down its oil production industry by 2045. No other industry in the Golden State has been officially slated for the scrap heap like the independent oil producers have been.
Recently, Chris Hall took to his keyboard and vented frustrations via the opinion page in the Wall Street Journal. The title of the piece is, “California Works to Kill Its Own Oil Industry. Will other states follow its lead?”
For ease of reading, the short piece is provided below:
Your editorial “Judges Say You Can’t Build That” (Sept. 3) cites California as an example of what happens when special-interest groups lobby and government takes action to shut down the fossil-fuel industry. It is the tombstone inscription that never should have had to be written.
For 10 years, California oil producers have tried to get our congressmen to hold hearings and commission a report on the effect state regulations were having on our oil industry. This was to be an unbiased report on the national-security implications for the U.S. energy supply if similar tactics were rolled out across the country. The hope was for it to be patterned after the 1994 report by the Commerce, Energy and Interior Departments that resulted in the lifting of the Alaska North Slope export ban.
Despite our pleadings, the hearings were never held and the report was never written. The California oil industry (which used to be America’s third largest) is being driven out of business. Our state now imports two-thirds of its oil from foreign countries. Nationally, capital funding won’t be available for infrastructure projects and oil and gas producers won’t be able to operate. Alas, more tombstones will be erected across the country.
J. Chris Hall
Perhaps no one involved in producing oil in California has been committed to defending independent producers more than Chris Hall to protecting the interests of small oil producers. He is not “big oil,” nor does he have a private jet. While his hard work has paid off, he none too happy about being told his legacy must end in 2045. Mr. Chris Hall, present or not when that date arrives, has no intention of going away without a fight.
The State of California has taken small producers for granted, and they will eventually regret it.