While Newsom Fiddles, California’s Gas & Oil Crisis Ramps Up with Tensions Between the US and Iran

While California Governor Gavin Newsom gallivants around the world pretending he’s an international political figure, and has now just embarked on a book tour rather than playing at being Governor, California suffers under some very serious government-created crises, starting with California’s oil refineries closing, leaving the state gas-starved.

Petroleum expert Michael Ariza, told the Globe last week that the Valero refinery closure will have more of an effect on our region. “In the Bay Area we only have two out of five refineries producing gasoline, jet fuel, and propane. Valero is down, Conoco Phillips in Rodeo and Marathon in Martinez are only producing bio diesel!”

Refineries shutting down is a real world problem for many industries, businesses and families in California which rely on fuel: the state’s farmers and ranchers, truckers, manufacturers, and many more industries are suffering under the climbing gas and diesel prices, and shortages.

Gov. Newsom is presiding over perhaps the largest energy policy collapse of the oil industry, refinery operations and gasoline production in U.S. history.

Most California residents know that California’s self-inflected gasoline crisis is not only increasing prices at the pump, but increasing dependency on foreign oil suppliers and shippers to supply fuels to the Golden State. And, California’s self-inflicted gas crisis is also a direct threat to U.S. military force readiness on the West Coast, the Globe reported in October.

California produces less than 23% of its own in-state petroleum needs and already imports over 70% of its crude oil from foreign sources, and that’s before the refinery closures. The oil and gas industry in California account for nearly 8% of the state’s GDP. Without oil and gas, the other 92% of the state’s GDP would be impossible to attain, Ariza, Professor Michael Mische and Assemblyman Stan Ellis have been warning.

Arizona gets nearly half of its gas from California. The vast majority of Nevada’s gas – 88% – comes from California.

California, Nevada and Arizona have 40 military bases and installations – California is home to 32 of those 40 military bases.

Now, the price of crude oil super tankers is going through the roof, Ariza says. And because California is gas-starved, already this year, two tankers carrying gasoline have arrived in California from the Bahamas.

“Gas prices in Northern California are continuing to climb. Up $.40 a gallon in a few weeks and yesterday I just went by two gas stations that moved up another $0.30 a gallon each,” Ariza said. “We anticipate the prices to keep climbing unfortunately.”

Last week the average price for a gallon of regular gas in California on Feb. 13, 2026, was $4.56. Ten days before that it was $4.37.

Today, February 22, 2026, according to AAA, gas in California is $4.62 per gallon of regular. A gallon of diesel is over $5.00 per gallon.

Assemblyman Ellis told the Globe that California military bases could end up running out of jet and aviation fuels should a military conflict unfold.

Why? Because of Governor Newsom’s political policies resulting in shockingly detrimental and lethal regulations of the oil and gas industry.

“California has no inbound pipelines supplying crude oil, gasoline, or aviation fuels, which amplifies U.S. national security vulnerabilities. Astonishingly, over 95% of California’s inbound crude and gasoline supplies are delivered by maritime tankers, the majority of which are not U.S.-flagged vessels, including tanker ships owned by Russia’s SCF Group and China’s Cosco Shipping Energy Transportation,” Assemblyman Ellis told the Globe.

India is providing crude oil and gas supplies to California, and Russia and China are delivering it.

How is that for U.S. Security?

At OilPrice.com, Charles Kennedy warns about the increasing cost of supertankers because of the current U.S. and Iran tensions:

The ratcheting up of tensions between the United States and Iran could push an already red-hot supertanker market even higher with rates soaring to the highest level since 2019, analysts say.

The daily rate for hiring a supertanker on the key Middle East-to-China route has surged threefold since the beginning of the year, to over $150,000.

That’s the highest since 2020, per data from the Baltic Exchange cited by Bloomberg.

The rally in freight rates for the very large crude carriers (VLCC) capable of carrying around 2 million barrels of crude began at the end of 2025 on the back of growing oil supply, longer voyages, and disruptions due to sanctions and altered shipping lanes.

Michael Ariza has warned of many different disruptions including weather, which can halt the voyages of very large crude carriers.

California imported more gasoline in November than ever before, with more than 40% coming from the Bahamas, Fortune reports. The lengthy distance supertankers must travel increases the cost of California’s gas. And because of California’s oil refineries shutting down and lack of interstate pipelines, it’s only going to get worse.

While Gavin Newsom has been playing International Man of Mystery in Germany and Davos, taking glamour shots and trash talking President Trump, California farmers and ranchers, truckers, manufacturers, and many more industries are suffering. Many say they will not be able to sustain if gas and diesel prices keep rising.

California today produces less than 23% of its own in-state petroleum needs and imports over 65% of its crude oil from foreign sources, yet the oil and gas industry in California account for nearly 8% of the state’s GDP, even in its diminished capacity.

In 1988, the state of California only imported about 4.5% of all the oil that we consumed in our state. By 2020 we were importing over 70%.

Notably, China is bringing in a lot of our jet fuel and gasoline in their Chinese Costco tankers, Ariza said, and that is a threat to national security.

We asked in December, “Has California’s Oil and Gas Industry Hit the Point of No Return?”