Jane Fonda’s Climate Agenda Left California Dirtier and More Expensive

Jane Fonda and her climate activists demanded that oil production be shut down, and Sacramento complied. The result has not been progress but a masterclass in ideological overreach and self-inflicted environmental damage.

Californians now pay the highest gas prices in the nation because pipelines were shut down and replaced with hundreds of additional oil trucks on our roads every day, while foreign oil tankers cross the oceans to supply what California once produced responsibly at home. This is not climate leadership. It is policy malpractice dressed up as virtue.

The San Pablo pipeline, which carried crude from Kern County to Northern California, has been idle since December 1, 2025. When critical infrastructure is shut down, oil does not disappear. It is forced into alternatives. 

Roughly 100 trucks now haul crude to pipeline stations each day, with another 100 returning empty. That means 200 additional heavy-duty trucks on California roads every day, solely because pipeline infrastructure was shut down. As Steve Layton, president of E&B Resources, explained on California Insider, this is the direct result of state policy. This is not climate leadership. It is environmental damage by design.

Then there is the import hypocrisy. California now imports more than 78% of the oil it uses. That dependence did not happen by accident. It was the direct result of activist-driven campaigns that Sacramento lawmakers embraced and enacted.

Jane Fonda and her allies never told Californians that their strategy would replace local oil production with imports from some of the most environmentally sensitive regions on Earth, including crude oil sourced from the Amazon Rainforest, causing environmental damage to one of the planet’s most fragile ecosystems.

This is the lie at the heart of modern climate activism. Shut down the most regulated oil production in the world. Replace it with imports, longer supply chains, more tankers, more trucks, higher costs, and higher emissions. Then declare victory.

California did not reduce demand. It outsourced responsibility.

Jane Fonda and her allies pushed to shut down local production, then said nothing as California shifted its reliance on oil sourced from places with little to no environmental standards and significant environmental risks.

Refinery shutdowns make the failure impossible to ignore. This past year, Reuters reported that California imported roughly 39,000 barrels of gasoline per day from India. That means more ocean tankers, longer shipping routes, higher emissions, and greater risk, all to sustain the illusion that energy demand can be regulated out of existence.

To make matters worse, the fuel refined in India is produced using crude oil imported from Russia. The result is an uncomfortable reality. California’s climate policies now help route energy dollars through foreign supply chains tied to the Russian oil market, meaning Californians indirectly finance the war in Ukraine every time they fill up or fly.

Here is the truth Californians were never told. Oil demand has not disappeared. Over the last decade, it has increased. 

That is because oil is not just gasoline. It is jet fuel that keeps planes in the air. It is transformer oil that keeps the electrical grid running. It is the foundation for more than 6,000 everyday products, including heart valves, prosthetics, shoes, sports equipment, medical devices, and even electric vehicles.

California did not eliminate oil use. It eliminated accountability. The demand remains. The impacts remain.

Jane Fonda and her allies are responsible for the outcome. Higher prices, increased dependence on foreign oil, lost jobs, reduced economic activity, and significant environmental damage are not unintended consequences. They are the direct and predictable result of their demands and Sacramento’s willing compliance.