Of Tar Balls, Blind Poodles, and our Feckless Governor
by Andy Caldwell
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Do you remember when environmentalists wanted to “green” the planet? We even called them greenies. Well, there is only one way to green the planet and that is by increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere. Imagine the contortions the movement went through when they came to the realization that, besides the most significant amounts of organic CO2 being produced from natural sources, that their arch enemy, the oil industry, was also a source by way of combustible fuels. Well, suddenly, increased CO2 was a no-no, and we never heard them express the goal of greening the planet ever again.
By the way, the planet is greener than it has been in centuries!
Well, that contortion was nothing compared to the about-face Gavin Newsom just made. After making the oil industry public enemy #1, president-elect Gavin is now becoming a pragmatist in that he realizes that, as reported by Cal Matters, “We are all the beneficiaries of oil and gas. No one’s naive about that,” Newsom said at a press conference last month. “So, it’s always been about finding a just transition, a pragmatism in terms of that process.” What does that mean in practice? Newsom is leading the way to boost oil production in Kern County and, perhaps, via offshore drilling.
This about-face came after Newsom and our state legislature tightened the thumbscrews on the oil industry enough so that two very large oil refineries announced they were closing, and analysts determined that gasoline prices in this state could hit $8 per gallon at the exact time Newsom begins his campaign for president in earnest in about 18 months. As Cal Matters reports “After years of making the oil industry into a political boogeyman, Newsom has become surprisingly receptive to its message. Gone is the bombastic governor who declared to a United Nations summit in 2023 that “this climate crisis is a fossil fuel crisis,” or who strong-armed the Legislature that same year into adopting a law that could penalize oil companies for excessive profits.
If “Green is Good,” then CO2 is Good Too
In addition to the sheer terror of trying to explain $8 per gallon gasoline, the Trump administration has also seen to it that Gavin’s plans to outlaw the sale of new gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles is kaput. Moreover, the Trump administration is in the process of blowing up the CO2 economic death cartel by way of rescinding what is known as Obama’s Endangerment finding, which is the basis for all CO2 regulations.
The finding cost our economy at least $1 trillion, with nothing accomplished in terms of reducing global CO2, thanks to China, India, Pakistan, and many others. The finding made the preposterous claim that CO2 endangers public health as if it is an air pollutant versus the essential component of life’s breath exchange between humans and plants.
Steve Milloy from JunkScience.com, writing for The Daily Caller, speaks of how the Obama administration and a then wishy-washy Supreme Court contorted the Clean Air Act to come up with the endangerment finding, “Clean Air Act co-author and famed Democrat Congressman, the late John Dingell stated ‘I think the Supreme Court came up with a very much erroneous decision on whether the Clean Air Act covers greenhouse gases. I was present when we wrote that legislation and we thought it was clear enough that it did not, and we didn’t clarify it thinking even the Supreme Court was not stupid enough to make that finding.’”
So, what does all this mean for those of us living behind enemy lines in the state of California? Well, our gas prices won’t be going down because, as Katy Grimes reported for The California Globe, quoting oil analyst David Noerr as he informed Californians that “the fact of the matter is you are paying the same or less for crude oil contained in a gallon of gas or diesel. You are just paying a lot more for government.”
Let that sink in, please.
The Rising Cost of Government Gas
Specifically, the cost of government amounts to 30% of the cost of a gallon of gas in our state including California’s cap-and-trade program, the low-carbon fuel standard, vapor recycling requirements, data collection, and air quality mandated equipment replacements (prematurely forced equipment losses), plus the cost of underground storage tank fees, state and local taxes, and state excise taxes per a breakdown by the California Globe.
Finally, let’s talk about the Santa Barbara Independent’s dog that can’t hunt, namely the Angry Poodle. The Angry Poodle can’t hunt because he is blind and that could be one of the reasons he is always so angry. Recently, a glaringly ignorant headline in that publication read, “Heal the Ocean Tackles Huge Amounts of Tar Along South County Beaches,” the subtitle read, “Hundreds of Pounds of Tar Cleaned Up from Hammonds and Leadbetter- ORIGIN UNKNOWN [emphasis added]. Huh? Is the poodle also deaf? Has he never heard of naturally occurring oil and gas seeps offshore of the accurately named “coal oil point”? The article even surmised that perhaps the excess oil could be coming from offshore oil production even though production has been shut down for the past 10 years!
That poodle is going to go apoplectic if and when Gavin Newsom himself shows up for a photo-op to flip the switch to resume offshore oil production via Sable! Of course, the flip of that switch will also leave the folks at Heal the Ocean completely mystified and flummoxed as the tar balls disappear from our beaches.
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Thank you for writing. Flying in last evening I spotted a large sheen on the water off Isla Vista meandering for several miles; I also have to clean my boat hull if I sail to the Goleta area waters. The facts are blatant that oil seeps from the channel and could be capitalized upon AND reduce oil on beaches. The County, et al is like the blind poodle dismissing the revenue potential and cleaner waters in the channel. I call the rag the "dependent" because over half relies on real estate ads, which is also a head scratcher.
Off shore we have what’s called Monterey Shale. It a fractured sea bed. Which is why we’ve always had tar leaks forever. When the platforms were pumping crude it took the pressure off the reserves, ergo less leaking tar. They’re blinded by hate and they would damage our quality of life rather than learn and accept the truth.