Gavin Newsom’s fossil-fuel flip-flop
Gavin Newsom once touted California as the fossil fuel industry’s “foe.” In 2024 he declared energy workers “the polluted heart of the climate crisis.” Together with Attorney General Rob Bonta he famously filed an outlandish climate lawsuit in 2023 demanding oil majors pay the costs of climate change. And under Newsom anti-energy lawfare has been coupled with burdensome environmental regulations, delays in permitting and punitive legislation such as a pledge to end oil drilling across the state by 2045. But now, a decade since the madness started, the strategy has turned out to be a dud. The “bold” climate plan has produced no reliable or affordable alternatives to oil and gas – and has even forced major refineries to up and leave.
