Delay baby delay.
That’s the MO of state and local officials who deplore oil production off the coast of California.
State and local governments would do well to stop stalling, scrap the green fantasies, and concede a simple truth: Californians need oil.
President Trump gets this; in March he directed Sable Offshore Corp. to resume oil sales off the Santa Barbara County coast, in service of national security.
Silhouetted oil pumpjacks and power lines against a bright orange and yellow sunset. Getty Images
A surfer on a wave with an offshore oil platform in the background under a pink sky. Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Offshore oil rig with a flare burning at the end of a boom, in the Catalina Channel near Long Beach, California. Getty ImagesGood move: Boosting local oil production eases reliance on foreign oil, protects against supply disruptions, and restrains rising gas prices.
Sadly, though, many officials in California government — state and local — would rather chase green Utopia than embrace this reality.
State government has sued to block Trump’s order; Santa Barbara County government has stalled permits for Sable operations; and a Superior Court judge just upheld an injunction against restarting company pipelines.
Sable emphasized on Wednesday that it will pursue more than $100 million in damages against the county for the permit delays.
Put another way: Sable is drilling for common sense.
California — once the regional global leader in oil production — needs more homegrown energy, more oil supply to meet in-state demand, and more oil drilling. Not less.
Problem is: For decades, California governors, legislators and regulators, along with some local officials, have enacted polices to systematically dismantle the state’s oil production industry in the name of saving the planet.
Surfers in the water at Refugio State Beach with the Hondo offshore oil platform in the distance. Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
The Hondo offshore oil platform in Santa Barbara, CA at sunset, with purple and orange hues in the sky and water, and a mountain range in the distance. Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesAs a result, the state’s crude oil production has dropped by nearly 75% since the 1980s — from 1 million barrels a day to about 325,000.
Despite this plummet, we’re told that oil’s risk to Earth is as grave as ever.
The green hype and excess give politicians cover to signal virtue, pump tax-funded green pork to cronies, and decry their political rivals as environmental Neanderthals.
Stall, spend, posture, and repeat.
All of this does near-zero to alter global temperatures.
It does, however, super-size energy prices for California consumers — thanks to costly taxes, regulations, mandates and supply restrictions.
And oil, by the way, is not just used for transportation, commerce, and aviation; it’s also key to a host of products that underpin daily life, such as plastics, fertilizers and medical devices.
To recap, the green posturing should go.
Sable can and should help ease California’s energy crisis and hedge against international oil supply disruptions.
And the senseless succession of delays by state and local officials?
They should cease.
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