Gavin Newsom Chases Another Oil Company Out of California

Phillips 66 announced Wednesday that it plans to close operations at its Los Angeles-area refinery late in 2025.

The company said in a press statement that it “will work with the state of California to supply fuel markets and meet ongoing consumer demand.”

This makes two oil companies that Governor Gavin Newsom has now chased out of California with his legislative attacks on the state’s oil and gas industry, as well as his recent legislation to decrease the state’s gas supply.

“Thanks to Gavin Newsom’s showboating and incompetence, hundreds of workers will lose their jobs while California drivers will face a massive price hike,” said Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher. “As Democrats double and triple down in their war on our energy industry, the closure of this refinery is the predictable result.

“Great work, Gavin.”

Gallagher also said Newsom’s reckless policies continue to drive up gas prices and kill jobs.

The Phillips 66 Los Angeles refinery accounts for more than 8% of California’s refining capacity and employs more than 600 workers.

“We understand this decision has an impact on our employees, contractors and the broader community,” said Mark Lashier, chairman and CEO of Phillips 66. “We will work to help and support them through this transition.” Approximately 600 employees and 300 contractors currently operate the Los Angeles-area refinery.

For those who don’t believe Phillips 66 is moving, the company “has engaged Catellus Development Corporation and Deca Companies, two leading real estate development firms, to evaluate the future use of the 650-acre sites in Wilmington, California, and Carson, California.”

Gov. Newsom claims that the state’s highest-in-the-nation gas taxes and prices are not what led to dramatically spiking gas/oil prices but because of price gouging by the oil industry. In May, Newsom even signed a gas price gouging law into place.

Even as California’s own Chevron Oil Company announced in August their corporate relocation to Houston Texas from the Bay Area, where the company has been based since 1879, Newsom continued to push his legislation which will clearly result in even higher gas prices at the pump.

Chevron was just the latest big business to flee the Golden State – we can add Phillips 66 to the long list.

Notably, Chevron’s President Andy Walz said in a letter to the Legislature that of the 36 states in which they work, only California has the highest gas prices.

The only conclusion was can draw from this announcement is that with Chevron leaving California and Phillips 66 joining them, no other refineries will invest in storage capacity for Newsom’s absurd gas storage mandate.

In May the Globe reported that the California Air Resources Board is mandating an additional 50 cents per gallon be added to the price of gas in California in January under the 2023 CARB Low Carbon Fuel Standard. This is all part of the goal to force California’s drivers out of their cars, and/or into electric vehicles.

Don’t expect Gavin Newsom to be circumspect about this announcement. He’s probably already added Phillips 66 and Chevron to the notches in his dashboard. These are wins for Newsom in his contorted world.

As the Globe reported earlier this week, Gavin Newsom is working to become the next Al Gore – the name and face of the worldwide climate change grift.

Every climate change bill passed by Newsom and the Legislature is to “Achieve net zero GHG emissions” in the state, and to Newsom and his acolytes, that means outlawing oil and gas. So pretty much everything we use in modern society needs to be upended, overhauled, and restricted, according to Gov. Newsom and the burgeoning industry of climate change hustlers.

The higher the stakes – including attacking the oil and gas industry – the more notoriety Gavin Newsom receives. The harm to the people, businesses and industries of the state is inconsequential as long as Newsom gets press.

“Great work, Gavin,” indeed.