Caption: On October 25, 2023 Newsom met with Xi and his cabinet of tyrants in Beijing.
It’s Energy Crunch Reality Check time for California, and Democrats are running scared. “Pressure is mounting on California regulators to reconsider proposed rules affecting oil refineries as industry leaders and some Democratic legislators warn the changes could threaten fuel supply and raise energy costs,” ABC News Sacramento reported on March 10th.
REFINERIES ESCAPING
The state’s draconian “cap-and-invest” regulations have driven up gasoline & energy costs and driven refineries out of the state. Phillips 66 closed its Los Angeles refinery late last year, and Valero will be shuttering its Benicia refinery in April. These two refinery closures will reduce California’s already-squeezed fuel supplies by nearly 20 percent.
According to AAA, the national average for gasoline across the country was $3.53 a gallon on March 10th. In California, the statewide average was $5.29 a gallon, the highest in the country. Those prices will soon be shooting up even more as the refinery capacity reduction kicks in.
But that’s not all: more refineries may soon exit the state. Marathon, Chevron, and PBF Energy have warned Governor Newsom that they also may be forced to flee the state. As Katy Grimes of the California Globe notes, “Gov. Newsom is presiding over perhaps the largest collapse of the oil industry, refinery operations and gasoline production in US history.” Fuel shortages, grid collapse, economic collapse anyone?
ENVIRONMENTAL LUNATICS IN CHARGE
The current crisis can be traced to decades of enviro-extremist legislation, but the final death blows can be attributed to Governor Newsom (he was lieutenant governor from 2011 to 2019 and governor since January 2019) and his Democrat comrades in the state legislature. In a September 16, 2022 press release, Newsom boasted of signing more than 40 bills that enacted his climate hysteria agenda into law. “Governor Newsom Signs Sweeping Climate Measures, Ushering in New Era of World-Leading Climate Action,” the release stated. “New California laws will create 4 million jobs, reduce the state’s oil use by 91%, cut air pollution by 60%, protect communities from oil drilling, and accelerate the state’s transition to clean energy,” it boasted. “Legislative package complements record $54 billion climate budget that focuses on equity and economic opportunity,” it continued.
Prices of everything are skyrocketing, and businesses, jobs, and taxpayers are leaving in droves. Is Newsom working for Xi Jinping’s Beijing regime? As the California Globe points out, some of his environmental bills have relied on Chinese “science” to justify the extreme regulatory measures that are crucifying all California producers: refiners, manufacturers, farmers, ranchers, grocers, miners, retailers, transporters, you name it!
NOTE: For the sixth consecutive year, California ranked 50th on the U-Haul Growth Index, meaning it had the highest net loss of one-way truck rentals in the United States.
PARTNERING WITH THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY
A central hub of Newsom’s Sacramento-Beijing axis is the California-China Climate Institute (CCI) a partnership between Tsinghua University and the University of California, Berkeley. Those nice folks at the CCP are helping Californians deal with their energy and pollution problems. A report last year by the National Association of Scholars, “How China Took Over University Climate Science to Weaken America,” points out that Tsinghua University is “a key instrument of the Chinese Communist Party’s foreign influence efforts and has played a key role in advancing China’s influence at American colleges and universities.” China, the world’s largest polluter, is being allowed to present “environmental science” that is being used by American politicians to debilitate the US economy to the advantage of Communist China’s economy.
The California Globe reports: “The US economy has been deliberately held back as China builds two new coal power plants per week, equaling eight new coal plants a month, and nearly 100 new coal power plants a year, according to a report by energy data organizations Global Energy Monitor and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.” The Globe notes further that it “has identified many Chinese university studies sourced by California’s corrupt Air Resources Board to justify their own papers and policy” that harm California while helping China.
Among the many “accomplishments” of Governor Newsom’s 2023 pilgrimage to China were his five MOUs (Memorandums Of Understanding), SEE BELOW, which included his agreement to blend California’s climate program with China’s Communist Five-Year Planning Process. Oh yes, another proud moment of that trip was Newsom’s meeting with Xi Jinping, the mass-murderer’s “first meeting with an American Governor since 2017.”
This article was slightly edited from one recently written by William F. Jasper for the John Birch Society.
Check me out on X @dianelgruber.
Living Behind Enemy Lines No Longer, Tale #36: Escaping Hatred, Crime, Filth
In early 2022 our next door neighbor was in the process of moving from Blue Washington to Red Montana.^ As he was preparing the house for sale, he was also assisting an elderly friend move from Oregon to Arizona, and they could not get a one-way U-Haul truck. His friend wound up flying to his new home and hiring a moving van to move his furniture. My ne…
Newsom’s Five Memos Of Understanding:
The specific agreements signed during the trip included:
- National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC): A high-level agreement with China’s top economic planning body to coordinate on low-carbon development and the green transition.
- Beijing: A renewal of a long-standing partnership focused on air quality management and climate mitigation strategies.
- Guangdong: An MOU to advance green development and carbon neutrality goals through shared research and technical exchange.
- Shanghai: Focused on building green shipping corridors between Shanghai and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
- Jiangsu: Focused on offshore wind technology and clean energy innovation.
The author, Diane L. Gruber, is a First Amendment advocate who writes for Substack. She calls her Substack newsletter America First Re-Ignited. Follow me on X @DianeLGruber.
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