Latest Energy Releases

Gavin Newsom learned a lesson from Jerry Brown’s last year in office. He saw how Brown’s refusal to deal with the supply side of oil and limit oil drilling tarred his credentials as a climate reformer. Newsom didn’t want that to happen to him. So, he embarked on six...

Trump has called climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.”  His Department of Energy is acting accordingly by canceling lots of awards for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and Direct Air Capture (DAC) projects purportedly removing carbon gases from industrial smokestacks or the air—including four so...

During the signing of the reauthorization bill for cap-and-trade this year, AB 1207 (Irwin), Governor Newsom claimed the bill would result in $60 billion saved in rebates for consumers over 20 years. He has since repeated the claim to suggest his Administration was making energy more affordable.  What Newsom didn’t say...

Governor Newsom, McGuire, and Rivas celebrated “Landmark Clean Energy, Climate and Affordability Solutions” .. It’s a load of horse poop. 

John Burton's death is reminder to us all that you can be principled and thrive in politics.John had the “Rage for Justice”

Two bills are moving through the California legislature that would lift a state moratorium on building carbon dioxide pipelines. The 2022 moratorium was imposed in the first place because the pipelines are very dangerous and underregulated.  AB 881 (Petrie-Norris) and SB 614 (Stern) made it through their houses of origin and are...

Since California gas prices are tipping $5 again, it’s time for the latest of oil industry boosters in the media to claim once again it’s government’s fault not the oil refiners.

I am smiling for Nalleli Cobo today, the young activist who has spent her short life recovering from illness related to growing up 30 feet from an oil well and fighting against the oil drilling industry to ban wells near communities. The oil drillers have just agreed to pull back...

The California Energy Commission and newly created Division of Petroleum Market Oversight provided valuable analysis at a recent workshop on the summer outlook for gasoline prices. It all boils down to how many days of supply refiners keep on hand to avoid price spikes.  Lack of enough days of gasoline...

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has wisely postponed a March vote on the new acceleration of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), which is designed to decrease the carbon intensity in fuels.   A staff analysis found that acceleration of the program could result in a 47 cents per gallon...

The Santa Susana Field Lab, nestled in the Simi Hills, is about an hour by car from downtown Los Angeles.  It is the scene of experimental nuclear reactor testing and a partial nuclear meltdown in 1959, plutonium production, and tens of thousands of rocket engine tests that left this infamous...

For more than two decades, Californians have been plagued by chronic gasoline price spikes and a much greater gap with US gasoline prices than is justified by added taxes and environmental costs.

This morning the Los Angeles Times published my commentary on why we need more transparency in California’s gas markets. Let's hope the powers that be in Sacramento and Washington listen. The oped follows: Who profits from Southern California’s high gas bills? The problem is we don’t know The doubling and in...

When the California Senate Energy Committee took on the price gouging penalty for the first time recently, economists with a track record working for the oil industry tried to muddy the waters on the real issues in the debate. Did oil refiners make massive profits off refining California gasoline in 2022? The companies’ own...

Monday, in the Natural Resources Committee, California Assembly Members will have the opportunity to answer the top question on their constituents' minds: why is the price of California gasoline so high and how much are oil refiners making off every gallon of gasoline? SB 1322 (Allen) requires the oil refiners...