EXCLUSIVE: The top Republican in the California State Senate praised the Trump administration for stepping in to reboot the Golden State’s "oil goldmine" off its coast, after a project notably opposed by Sen. Adam Schiff had been shut down since a major pipe failed in 2015.
"California is sitting on an oil gold mine, yet Democrat politicians continue to block responsible production here at home," Sen. Brian Jones of San Diego told Fox News Digital.
"Instead, they choose to import oil from foreign nations with weak labor protections and poor environmental standards."
As Fox News Digital reported exclusively, the Interior Department shepherded the reopening of the Santa Ynez Unit of the Pacific oil-producing region in recent days, bringing an estimated 190 million barrels of recoverable oil potential online.
Sen. Adam Schiff, left., California Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, right (Getty; Reuters)
Schiff, along with Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., had previously vocally opposed revisiting the project, citing concerns stemming from the Refugio oil spill a decade ago.
"[W]e face threats from the Trump administration to expand oil drilling everywhere, including offshore California, and to gut federal policies and agencies that protect our environment and tackle the ongoing climate crisis," Schiff and Carbajal wrote to Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this year.
"As we know all too well, fossil fuel-driven climate change is severely impacting California and setting the stage for unprecedented disasters like the one we just experienced in Los Angeles," they said.
Jones said that it is past time to reopen energy reserves in a state that was once the hub of the industry's top corporations.
Chevron recently moved most of its business operations out of San Ramon — outside Oakland — and relocated to Texas.
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Just a few miles up I-680 from the former Chevron base, Valero announced the closure or restructuring of a massive refinery capable of 145,000 barrels of oil output per day. Valero will finalize its plan by April 2026.
Jones said California must put both its workers and the environment first, echoing other top Republicans who want jobs and business to stay.
California’s gas tax remains the nation’s highest, with Illinois and Pennsylvania close behind.
Newsom has said he’s focused on fixing market issues to make gasoline more affordable and ensure reliable access to fuel.
In a recent letter to the California Energy Commission, Newsom said his administration has "made great progress in addressing spikes and irregularities," and pointed to global energy uncertainty.
He also blamed President Donald Trump’s administration for adding "more uncertainty and instability to the global economy than ever before - with the oil industry on the front lines of this market turmoil."
"Refineries have been restructuring, transitioning, consolidating, and closing across the country for years," he said, pointing to the January closure of a LyondellBasell refinery in Houston amid what he described as that firm’s shift toward "decarbonization and sustainability objectives."
California Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher of Yuba City, the No. 2 Republican in the Golden State, rejected that assertion.
"He’s not solving the problem. He is the problem," Gallagher said in a recent statement, adding the governor is trying instead to appear like "a concerned bystander" in the situation.