California Considers More Drilling and Other Concessions to Big Oil as Refineries Plan to Close

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 7 August 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

California has long gone head-to-head with big oil, leading many of the efforts to curb climate damage caused at the hands of the fossil fuel industry – including spearheading lawsuits against oil companies and pushing fracking bans. But faced with the closure of two state refineries, and rising gas prices, Governor Gavin Newsom has made some major concessions on oil to not only keep the refineries open, but to draft a bill for more drilling in Kern county. We’ll talk about California’s changing relationship with the oil industry, the state’s efforts to phase out fossil fuels, and what’s going to happen to gas prices in the meantime. Guests: Severin Borenstein, professor at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business; faculty director of The Energy Institute at Haas; member, Board of Governors of the California Independent System Operator Lori Wilson, California State Assemblywoman, District 11 Alex Nieves, California transportation reporter, POLITICO Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	If you haven't tried Abercrombie denim yet, you're missing out.
0:03.8	Denim should fit like this.
0:06.0	It's all about proportions.
0:07.7	Abercrombie has their classic fits and athletic fits for guys who want a little more room in the thigh.
0:13.1	When you find your staple fit, it'll be the pair you reach for day after day for every plan.
0:19.2	Shop Abercrombie denim in, in the app, online, and in store.
0:27.2	Hey, I'm Bianca Taylor, host and producer of KQED's Daily News Podcast, the latest.
0:33.3	You probably have heard, maybe even from KQED, that Congress recently voted to eliminate funding to NPR, PBS, and all local stations.
0:43.7	And yes, that does include KQED.
0:46.2	This means that KQED, the public media organization that produces this podcast, loses $8 million per year for at least the next two years.
0:56.8	This threatens our mission to provide free, reliable news and also the storytelling that you love.
1:03.2	We know that you know this, but it's worth repeating.
1:05.3	At a time of misinformation and disinformation, independent non-commercial media like KQED is more important than
1:13.6	ever. So while this is a grave setback, we can't let it be the end of public media or KQED.
1:21.7	We're still here. We're still public. And we still rely on you. So please give now at kQED.org slash podcasts.
1:33.1	From KQED.
1:34.6	From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Guy Marzorati, in for Alexis Madrigal.
1:51.0	California has long gone head to head with big oil, leading many of the efforts to curb climate damage caused at the hands of the fossil fuel industry.
2:00.0	But faced with the closure of two state refineries, Governor Gavin Newsom is making what some
2:05.7	see as a sharp U-turn, offering some major concessions on oil as his energy officials lobbied
2:12.2	to not only keep the refineries open, but to draft a bill for more drilling in Kern County. We'll talk about the
2:18.6	state's changing relationship with the oil industry, the potential fossil fuel phaseout,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KQED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KQED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.