California’s climate alarmism has put America at risk

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) once fancied himself climate warrior-in-chief. California’s governor, the would-be heir to the White House, spent the better part of his tenure demonizing the oil and gas industry, waging regulatory war on refineries, and touting apocalyptic “just transitions” away from reliable energy. 

Through an array of coordinated cases, Newsom has been using climate lawfare as a way to impose his extreme energy agenda on California.

In classic Sacramento fashion, he courted applause from the global climate elite while treating America’s energy providers as a public nuisance and their workers as collateral damage.

Now, reality has come a-knockin’ — and it’s bringing $5-per-gallon (and climbing) gas with it.

After years of escalating hostility, capped by cascading lawsuits and piles of red tape, refineries in Southern and Northern California are shutting their doors. Phillips 66 and Valero, giants forced out not by market forces but by legislative sabotage, are just the latest casualties. 

The aftermath has resulted in soaring prices, dwindling supplies and a panicked political about-face, as Newsom “reconsiders” his position to stave off voter revolt and economic pain that even blue-state consumers can’t stomach.

This is what happens when a government, seduced by climate catastrophism and far-left activism, trades affordable energy for Paris Accord virtue-signaling and lawsuit-driven policy. 

Lawfare, overregulation and the never-ending escalation of climate mandates haven’t ushered in a green utopia. They have instead delivered higher prices, manufactured scarcity and a growing national security nightmare. 

It’s not just a California problem; it’s an America problem. The Newsom model: regulate to the point of collapse, sue the producers out of existence and import more oil from regimes that laugh at net zero and Environmental, Social and Governance or ESG. 

As the U.S. cedes energy leadership to China, the world’s largest coal consumer and rare earths monopolist, we’re helping Beijing tighten its grip on our supply chains for batteries, solar panels, and critical minerals. For every new regulatory stranglehold, China gets richer and the U.S. gets weaker.

In short, Newsom’s policies are a blueprint for how America loses the 21st century. 

Overregulation hammered California oil production, then shut down its refining capacity, all while the state’s legal assault on energy companies, cozy with dark money activist lawyers, pursued judgment dollars for pet climate projects.

The result was predictable: Golden State gas prices now dwarf the national average, and high-paying energy jobs have evaporated. Worse still, the pain inflicted on consumers and workers has done nothing to alter the climate or shift the global energy consumption, because it was never going to.

Meanwhile, California families pay the price for policy-driven energy scarcity. The state’s painful “energy island” status means Californians can’t simply import their way out of shortages. Every extra dollar squeezed at the pump, every pink slip for an energy worker, is the real cost of this ideological crusade.

If consumers believe the sacrifices Newsom demands of them serve some higher environmental good, they are being misled. America’s oil, natural gas and coal industries are the most efficient and responsibly developed in the world, not because of bureaucratic mandates, but because of relentless private-sector innovation.

Offshoring energy production to regimes with no regard for human rights or environmental protection doesn’t help the planet — rather, it empowers our adversaries and weakens American security.

Worse still, the cost of these policies falls squarely on working Americans. The cost of energy drives the price of every good and service, from food to housing to health care. Newsom must realize that California’s climate lawfare crusade could run the U.S. economy into the ground. 

If he wants to lead America, he would first need to lead the charge in slamming shut the revolving door of regulatory lawfare, ending the war on affordable energy, and reasserting American energy independence. But a zebra doesn’t change its stripes.

The lesson of California is clear: Policies that undermine our energy producers, punish consumers and make us dependent on adversaries are not just bad economics, they’re bad for the country. 

For California’s sake, and the country’s, it’s time to put energy affordability and reliability back at the center of our national priorities.

Jason Isaac is CEO of the American Energy Institute.