You know, this might be why that most oleaginous of public personalities hasn’t slithered on over to his social media comms team and told them to cool their fingers yet.
The stupid stuff they’re publishing and the flak they’re getting back is nothing compared to what’s going to happen to Governor Gavin Newsom’s presidential aspirations if he doesn’t get some gas and oil refining capabilities locked back down for his state, like, chop-chop.
His aspirations will expire in the permanently fatal sense.
There’s another advantage to the juvenile delinquents handling his X accounts – while everyone’s watching them implode, knowing he has nothing to do with it, he can work on pretending he has always been a fan of the oil industry and is taking it personally that they didn’t think so.
BUT I ALWAYS LIKED YOU GUYS
After years of attempting to tax and regulate oil companies out of the state while blaming them for the soul crushing gas prices in California, Gavin Newsom figures out that Gavin Newsom is responsible for the soul crushing gas prices in California. pic.twitter.com/Yvm9PVQAju
— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) August 18, 2025
Nobody’s falling for the smiling Newsom in the tailpipe trick, even as Newsom and the legislature are trying to kickstart pumping black gold out of that sacred California soil again.
Yeah – you heard me.
They’re even going so far as trying to restart the oil wells they worked so hard to shut down in Kern County. Which, of course, in the new and improved Newsom version, he was always all about.
…For decades, the state has raced to end its reliance on fossil fuels and prioritize clean energy. Its relationship with oil companies became particularly contentious in the past two years, as Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic legislators held two special sessions to crack down on alleged price gouging at the pump.
But now two of its last remaining fuel refineries are closing sooner than California expected, tossing a simmering emergency into officials’ laps. With a hotly debated forecast that $8-per-gallon gasoline might be on the horizon, there has been a remarkable shift at the state Capitol. Led by Newsom, who just last fall was lambasting oil companies for “screwing” consumers, California may soon let its black gold flow again.
“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.”
Newsom and Democratic legislative leaders are now negotiating a plan with the industry to boost stagnating production in California’s oil-drilling hub of Kern County — and avert a nightmare scenario for a governor with national ambitions and a party that has promised to focus on affordability. Lawmakers could pass a measure before the end of their annual session in mid-September, though the details remain unsettled and environmental groups are raising alarms.
Kind of a race against time as the rules, regulations, and restrictions are this close to shutting down what home-grown oil production California has left, leaving the state and its residents at the mercy of oil imports from around a very unstable world.
…Industry leaders argue pumping more crude oil in California, particularly in Kern County, could help meet demand at a lower cost. But if the state doesn’t act quickly, they warn that production could drop so low it would shut down pipelines between local oil fields and refineries, further exacerbating a crisis of California’s own creation.
California’s favorite crusading climate cultist is being forced into the abrupt reversal by the failure of his own policies, and the demonization of the oil industry he used as a cudgel to get them passed.
…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 strong-armed the Legislature that same year into adopting a law that could penalize oil companies for excessive profits.
Nowadays, Newsom is suddenly all about ‘the how.’ He’s a ‘get ‘er done’ kinda guy.
Listen to this shameless reversal. What an operator.
…“We’re in the ‘how’ business. We move to a low-carbon, green-growth future, change the way we produce and consume energy,” Newsom said at the press conference last month. “At the same time, we have enough available fuel supplies, a stable fuel supply and address the anxieties around cost. Both and.”
My mom – who is a MSNBC watching liberal – owns an oil well. She told me that the shipper is moving out of California because of Gavin Newsom’s policies and it’s a big mess with oil companies. I imagine that will be a bigger story if she’s complaining about it.
— Sasha Stone (@realsashastone) August 19, 2025
You bet Newsom wants to avoid a catastrophe at all costs, because there would be no doubt who caused it. But this won’t be as easy as when he woke up the day before they shut down the Diablo Canyon plant and did a quick 180 °to keep it open. He escaped then by the hair of his chinny-chin-chin.
There are a lot of moving parts to this self-induced trainwreck.
…In a jab at Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Newsom ran ads contrasting Florida’s conservative policies with California’s liberal stances on abortion, education and LGBTQ+ rights.
The Western States Petroleum Assn., a trade group that represents the industry, responded with a warning for Floridians about the cost of gas and electricity in Newsom’s Golden State.
“Gavin Newsom is banning gas cars and shutting down California oil production,” the association’s ad stated. “California can’t afford Gavin Newsom’s ambition. Can Florida?”
It turns out, the price of California’s battle with oil — both politically and at the pump — may be too much for the governor and the state to bear.
Now with two oil refineries expected to shut down over the next year, the Democratic governor has halted his fight with the industry he accused of price gouging and targeted in two special legislative sessions.
Shameless, just shameless. The difference now is that everyone is calling him out over it.
…Newsom has downplayed the change in approach.
“It’s completely consistent,” he said at a recent news conference. He’s also not naive, he said.
“We are all the beneficiaries of oil and gas,” he said.
“So it’s always been about finding a just transition of pragmatism in terms of that process.”
His comments this summer have marked a noticeable change in tone from a Democratic governor whose climate change advocacy became synonymous with attacking the oil industry.
In a state that also has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country…
…allowing those remaining oil and gas industry jobs to disappear is nothing to sneer at and nothing that can easily be replaced, either.
California’s False Promise of a ‘Just Transition’
California now imports more oil from the Amazon rainforest than it produces at home
…It was my father’s job, not a college degree, that paid the bills, kept medical insurance in place, put food on the table, and gave my parents a secure retirement. That job offered dignity, stability, and a middle-class life.
Today, California’s oil industry offers that same pathway to the middle class. Many of its workers, even those with only a high school diploma, earn an average of $123,000 a year. This industry also opens the door for second-chancers, people who have rebuilt their lives after incarceration. It’s one of the few industries left where a person’s background doesn’t define their future.
THAT is a ‘just transition’ – the chance to turn your life completely around and earn a good living through your own hard work.
But those jobs are easy for limousine liberals like Newsom and the CA environmental loons to sneer and jeer at.
…But that future is under direct attack. Environmental activists, some Hollywood celebrities, regulators, and legislators talk about a “just transition” away from these jobs. They speak as though there’s a plan—some mystical orderly path from good-paying oil and gas jobs into equally good-paying “clean energy” jobs. But here’s the truth: there is no such thing as a “just transition” when all you’re doing is shutting down local oil production and replacing it with foreign oil imports.
Where are the $123,000-a-year jobs these 55,000 workers will walk into?
Show us the postings. Show us the career ladders. Show us the benefits and the retirement plans. If any did exist, they are few and far between. Most “just transition” talk boils down to: we are going to shut down your industry, take your job, maybe train you for something else that pays less than half of your current salary, and then you’re on your own.
And here’s what makes it worse: California’s demand for oil hasn’t dropped, but our willingness to produce our own energy has.
Not one of them is bothered by the outright hypocritical lunacy of importing oil and gasoline from tens of thousands of miles away, from countries with appalling human rights and environmental records, while stifling the clean and efficient extraction and refinement of their own in the name and service of the climate cult.
Not one of them gives two snaps about an oil worker losing his job because his hands were dirty and wet with Gaia’s blood, whereas they routinely weep and march over a deported ‘honest, hardworking undocumented immigrant’ or, God forbid, a San Francisco non-profit head who loses theirs.
…Worse still, we import oil from nations that execute LGBTQ+ people, deny women basic rights, and exploit workers.
In the name of “climate justice,” we’re putting our own people out of work while paying $25 billion a year to foreign countries, many of whom don’t share our values.
That $25 billion should stay here, supporting California families, strengthening our tax base, and helping cities and counties that are struggling with deficits. Instead, it leaves our state while we lose good-paying jobs, weaken our energy security, and pretend we’re leading on climate.
If that’s a “just transition,” then words have lost their meaning.
Environmentalists are ‘dismayed,’ and want the state to power through on course, damn the torpedoes of fossil fuel industry naysayers and gas engine car owners!
Miraculously, the biggest climate crusader of all has had a come-to-Jesus moment, courtesy of reality and panic at the thought that something might keep him from the White House.
Newsom’s not gonna let that happen if humanly possible.
…Among the considerations is Newsom’s proposal to make it easier to drill new wells in oil fields in Kern County. His plan also would streamline new wells in existing oil fields across the state if companies permanently plug two old wells.
Later this week, the Energy Commission is expected to consider pausing a possible cap on oil industry profits and suspending potential new state oversight of the timing of refinery maintenance. The state is also reportedly attempting to intervene to find a buyer for the Valero plant in Benicia.
But there are a lot of balls in the air to be juggled, and so very little time left. If the legislature balks under pressure at any juncture, the oil companies are already in the process of shutting down, so they’ll just keep rolling.
How much personable flip-flopping can Newsom do to shove this through before he turns nasty if things don’t go his way and they turn the last taps off is the question.
Tick tock.
Our terrific HotAir VIP members are so important thanks to their support of our daily mission to bring you the best in conservative commentary. Ed, David, John, and I pride ourselves on the work we do every day to bring you our takes on all sorts of news, be it political, breaking, or just dang interesting
Stories from not only here at home, but from all over the world. We hope we inspire conversations and enable our HotAir readers to be informed and intrigued, always to learn a little more.
But we can’t fight the good fight without your help.
We would love to invite you join our tremendous VIP community. You can use the code FIGHT right now to join during the 60% off special – it’s a terrific opportunity to look into the VIP Gold and Platinum memberships.
We can’t thank you all enough for being here with us at HotAir!
