By Jon Cox, BAKERSFIELD.COM
Policy positions long advocated by Kern County’s petroleum industry would come to the fore under a bill announced this week by state Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, to help prioritize oil produced in California over crude imported from other countries.
Similar to at least three other pieces of legislation Grove introduced unsuccessfully in recent years, Senate Bill 13 would require two state agencies — including the powerful California Air Resources Board — to track and report environmental and financial implications of bringing oil to the state by tanker ship from overseas.
“We need an ethically coherent approach to our energy production, and that starts with ensuring our oil is produced responsibly and maximizing our domestic production right here in California,” Grove said in a news release Monday.
“It is common sense that sending oil through a pipeline from Kern County to a Los Angeles refinery is a safer, and cheaper, way to produce gasoline in California,” she added. “Expanding domestic oil production would remove the need for hundreds of polluting tanker ships to deliver oil to California, lower the cost of gasoline and create good jobs for Californians.”
SB 13 echoes arguments trade groups have raised in response to a series of anti-oil bills, and actions by Gov. Gavin Newsom, that have effectively curtailed in-state oil production while increasing imports from countries the industry accuses of having poor human rights and environmental records. Local oil companies also say tankers pollute communities near ports and raise costs for consumers.
Grove’s bill was condemned by a consumer group that has viewed in-state oil producers with suspicion. The organization, Santa Monica-based Consumer Watchdog, called SB 13 a “rhetorical trick” that has “a snowball’s chance in hell” of passing the state Legislature.
“In terms of protecting communities’ health, there’s no question that it is better to phase out oil wells,” President and Chairman Jamie Court said by email Tuesday. “The only time I have seen Shannon Grove care about human rights, labor rights or environmental rights is when it plays into an oil industry argument.”
CEO Rock Zierman of the California Independent Petroleum Association trade group commended Grove for “prioritizing California workers over foreign dictators.”
“We should maximize the amount of energy we produce ourselves, in Kern County, under the strictest environmental and labor rules in the world,” Zierman said by email Tuesday.
Added spokeswoman Julie Berge at the Western States Petroleum Association trade group, “Creating more awareness on the trade-offs of replacing in-state oil production with foreign imports is important as the state grapples with meeting the energy demand of the world’s fifth largest economy.”
According to Grove’s release, the roughly 340,000 barrels of oil California produces daily accounts for just 23% of California’s supply. It also says the taxes and fees incurred by shipping oil to California add about 30 cents to the cost of a gallon of gasoline in the state.
If passed by the Legislature and signed by Newsom, SB 13 would require CARB to report the amount of particulate matter emitted by tankers bringing oil into the state. Additionally, it would tell the California Energy Commission to include expenses associated with oil imports in the agency’s breakdown of factors driving gasoline costs.
Spokespeople for the energy commission and the governor’s office declined to comment on the bill. CARB declined to comment Tuesday.
Grove proposed similar measures as part of legislation she introduced in February but which stalled in May. She also introduced legislation in 2022 and 2023 that would have achieved similar goals of softening Sacramento’s stance against in-state oil production.
Co-Director Cesar Aguirre at the Central California Environmental Justice Network said SB 13 would make it harder for California to reach its climate goals.
“Exemptions in California laws allow legal venting of greenhouse and toxic gasses into places like Truxtun Park,” Aguirre said by email Tuesday.
“California also has some of the most carbon intensive oil anywhere in the world,” he continued. “The same companies that are committing crimes against humanity in other places of the world will be producing in Kern. The most ethical option is to not do business in California with these human rights abusers.”