‘Climate’ Policies in a Harris Administration
Ground zero for the war on conventional energy in the United States is in Kern County, California. It is home to some of the largest oil fields in the United States, with estimated reserves totaling more than 27 billion barrels. Most of these reserves contain what is considered heavy oil, making it more difficult to extract and refine, but as a result, Californians have developed what are among the cleanest and most sophisticated extraction and refining technologies in the world. All of that is melting away under a relentless regulatory onslaught.
Despite sitting on ample reserves, today, California imports 75 percent of its oil and 90 percent of its natural gas. And despite subjecting taxpayers and energy consumers to literally hundreds of billions in extra costs in order to replace oil with renewables, 50 percent of California’s total energy production is fueled by petroleum, with another 30 percent coming from natural gas. That total, 80 percent from fossil fuel, is a mere two percent better than the global average. In 2023, 82 percent of worldwide energy production came from fossil fuels.
Californians are victims of a special interest-driven regime that is determined to keep the state on the bleeding edge of so-called renewable energy technology. It is naive to think Kamala Harris is going to deviate from these energy policies if she ends up getting elected US president. Across the entire nation, the result will be higher energy costs than ever, costing taxpayers and consumers not hundreds of billions, but literally trillions of dollars. Most of this money will be wasted.
Back in Kern and other Californian oil-producing counties, new drilling permits are now almost impossible to acquire, and existing wells are subject to new laws that require setbacks of nearly a mile from any “sensitive receptor,” i.e., any building that houses people or is open to the public. Oil extraction within California, steady throughout the 1980s at nearly 400 million barrels per year, has fallen to only 118 billion barrels in 2023, with escalating restrictions that promise to eliminate production entirely within the next five to ten years.
Today, if you still have a job with a rebranded energy corporation in California, it is often only because you are the beneficiary of some of those billions the Biden/Harris administration awarded as part of the “Green New Deal.”
Despite sitting on ample reserves, today, California imports 75 percent of its oil and 90 percent of its natural gas. And despite subjecting taxpayers and energy consumers to literally hundreds of billions in extra costs in order to replace oil with renewables, 50 percent of California’s total energy production is fueled by petroleum, with another 30 percent coming from natural gas. That total, 80 percent from fossil fuel, is a mere two percent better than the global average. In 2023, 82 percent of worldwide energy production came from fossil fuels.
Californians are victims of a special interest-driven regime that is determined to keep the state on the bleeding edge of so-called renewable energy technology. It is naive to think Kamala Harris is going to deviate from these energy policies if she ends up getting elected US president. Across the entire nation, the result will be higher energy costs than ever, costing taxpayers and consumers not hundreds of billions, but literally trillions of dollars. Most of this money will be wasted.
Back in Kern and other Californian oil-producing counties, new drilling permits are now almost impossible to acquire, and existing wells are subject to new laws that require setbacks of nearly a mile from any “sensitive receptor,” i.e., any building that houses people or is open to the public. Oil extraction within California, steady throughout the 1980s at nearly 400 million barrels per year, has fallen to only 118 billion barrels in 2023, with escalating restrictions that promise to eliminate production entirely within the next five to ten years.
Today, if you still have a job with a rebranded energy corporation in California, it is often only because you are the beneficiary of some of those billions the Biden/Harris administration awarded as part of the “Green New Deal.”
70-79, M
