We Didn't Stop Using Oil. We Just Started Importing More of It.

California runs on oil. It is a fact.

For the past decade, oil demand in California has remained steady. Cars are more fuel-efficient, and electric vehicles are a bigger part of our lives, but they have not eliminated the need for petroleum. Jet fuel, transportation, agriculture, manufacturing, transformer oil, asphalt, medical supplies, and more than 6,000 everyday products still depend on oil.

California uses approximately 1.8 million barrels of petroleum every day. That demand does not disappear because politicians or activists pass a bill, hold a press conference, or attack local energy producers.

When California shuts down in-state oil production, we do not use less oil. We import more.

Today, California imports roughly 78 percent of the oil it uses. Much of that oil arrives by tanker from foreign countries with little to no environmental, labor, and human rights standards.

California oil producers operate under some of the strongest environmental, safety, labor, and public health laws in the world. Foreign producers are exempt from California’s rules. They do not answer to California regulators. They do not employ California workers. They do not support California communities.

Why can’t this issue be simple?

If California still needs oil, it should be produced here under California standards.

Importing oil does not reduce demand. It only shifts production elsewhere, increases tanker traffic at sea, sends more money overseas, and leaves us vulnerable to global markets and issues.

California can support innovation, new technology, and cleaner energy while still producing the oil we use today.

The last barrel of oil used in California should come from California workers, produced under California’s standards, not from foreign regimes with little to no standards and accountability to our state.