Quickly tracking oil in California will not reduce gas prices

By Deborah Sivas, special for Calmatters

This comment was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

California legislators have just adopted legislation in support of the oil and gas industry in an attempt to reduce consumers costs. Below an environmental scientist, it claims that facilitating oil drilling will not reduce gas prices. Opposition: Business Professor says the deal is overdue but also in parts of approach For such a critical problem.

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The demand for gasoline in California has steadily decreased in the last two decades, when state consumers are moving to more clean electric and hybrid vehicles.

What is Giving some state -owned acid politicians is the fact that the decline in demand for gasoline means reducing the demand for state oil refining. In response, some California refineries have started consolidation, conversion or closingS

Although this is good news for the nearby communities burdened by refinery pollution, civil servants are worried that the refining capacity can fall faster than the consumption of gasoline by increasing the prices of the pump as short-term demand exceeds supply.

The oil industry is betting on this fear and suggested a dangerous solution: the release of all new oil and gas wells from the California Environmental Law, conversationfully known as CEQA (See-kwah is pronounced). The industry aggressively pushed state legislation on this. What legislators have accepted last week, Senate Bill 237It did not go that far, but it aims to facilitate the expansion of the drill in the Kerne -rich region.

However, the same questions arise from this release. Quickly track the new oil drilling permits will do nothing that affects the pump prices.

California has extracted raw oil from 150 years. By the beginning of the 20th century, it was the leading country that produced oil in the country. The aid for this boom was the deposits of natural gas, which create pressure in the oil tanks, which allows the raw to flow to the surface. Early oil derivals in California sometimes caused explosive bugs that sprayed oil high in the air, which prompted a wave of local regulation.

Gushers’ days are gone. With natural gas stores, largely exhausted, oil deposits in California now contain mostly heavy raw oil, often stored in folded geology and difficult to extract. Today’s wells usually inject steam or hot water to reduce oil viscosity and increase its flow. This is energy and expensive, so drilling in California is not as competitive as Texas or North Dakota.

These basic economies–not the laws of the environment-to a large extent dictate the level of state production of crude oil. California already brings the bigger part of the raw oil Feeding your refineries. Refinent operators understand this and make decisions based on long -term business forecasts.

Because the state produces less oil, it is less in need of refining in the country. This transition provides an opportunity. Many refineries sit on a valuable land that can be re -established for more sustainable applications.

The legislation that releases the new drilling of oil from environmental quality standards will not magically change this reality. Actually, Current forecasts from the US Energy Information Administration offer Global oil prices will fall next year or two, perhaps to levels that will make most California production uncompetitive. Global market prices are the likely cause many new wells that the state has approved in recent years have not been drilled.

The gutting of environmental provisions would invalidate communities that are trying to protect themselves from potential risks associated with oil production, such as toxic air pollution, water and soil pollution and soil drilling explosionsS

If civil servants want to smooth the transition of California from transport fuel, they must look for solutions such as facilitating port improvements in order to increase oil imports. And State legislators must Stay vigilant about the price price As the market is consolidated by fewer players.

CEQA requires the oil regulators in California to study, reveal and mitigate the potential effects of drilling. Contrary to the industry’s story, CEQA is neither a reason for the demand for gasoline or the solution to the price spikes.

We need to celebrate the path of clean energy that California is on fire, not quickly expel one of the environmental laws at its core.

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.