To the editor: Haven’t all of us been in search of methods to curb fuel costs (“How to bring down gas prices in California (Hint: Pumping oil won’t help),” March 3)? That was my excessive hope studying this op-ed. However after a few explanatory paragraphs, the professor’s experience devolved to the identical drained environmentalist politics: Don’t attempt to repair what’s damaged, simply drive electrical automobiles, blame the oil corporations and let the lawmakers repair it.
Our state sits on a few of the world’s largest oil reserves, however as visitor contributor Paasha Mahdavi factors out, manufacturing has decreased since 1986. Isn’t that about when the environmental foyer took management of the state Legislature? Mahdavi criticizes rising native drilling as a solution to enhance provide; frequent sense doesn’t agree. The California Energy Commission reported for 2024 that 23.3% of oil refined to gasoline got here from in-state sources, 13.3% from Alaska and 63.5% from overseas sources.
California now has simply nine refineries, down from the times after we had more than 40 (again after we had competition-based pricing). Mahdavi ignores the explanations for that lower, that are well-known if the CEOs of departed oil companies are to be believed: California’s extreme, unrealistic anti-oil trade laws and legal guidelines. These actions have slowly grown since (aha! coincidence?) 1986 to the current crescendo.
The “hidden worth” quandary lacks some apparent explanations, like every part in California being dearer, from taxes to lease to transportation to the sundry prices of doing enterprise. Throwing extra money and laws at a brand new impartial state authorities division will solely make these processes murkier, even much less prone to create methods to curb fuel costs.
Raymond Roth, Oceanside
