It’s no secret that California faces a fuel supply crisis.

With the shutdown of Valero’s Benicia refinery next month, the Golden State will have lost nearly a third of its refining capacity in just six years, forcing the state to rely on more expensive and risky gasoline imports from overseas.

To stabilize fuel supplies and avoid even higher prices at the pump, legislators, energy regulators, and Governor Newsom have all recognized the need to keep California’s remaining refineries open.

But evidently the California Air Resources Board (CARB) didn’t get the memo.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

“[CARB’s Cap-and-Invest] plan would … adjust the state’s system of free allowances, which have historically been given to oil refineries and other industrial facilities in the hope of keeping them in California.”

Industry experts called the proposal “alarming,” noting the changes would saddle the state’s refineries with billions of dollars in new costs, raise fuel prices, and hurt competitiveness as Cap-and-Invest regulations don’t apply to out-of-state producers.

After CARB’s proposal was made public, Marathon argued that “California refineries are already among the most expensive refineries to operate in the world” and the new regulations “would further widen the cost disparity, forcing refineries to reconsider whether operations in California remain viable.”

Chevron was more direct, writing in a letter to policymakers: 

“The proposed regulation will cripple the survivability of the state’s remaining refineries, which will result in California losing the entire industry to this misguided program.”

Noting the impact of refinery closures on jobs and fuel costs, fifteen Assembly Democrats have urged CARB to rethink their approach:

“It is now evident that California’s regulatory environment has driven out actors necessary for an affordable energy consumer market … California’s climate leadership cannot come at the cost of destabilizing our energy markets and burdening those least able to bear it.”

Separately, Assemblymember David Alvarez (D-San Diego) told ABC 10: “I think the [Cap-and-Invest] regulations the way they are now are incorrect. It’s not hyperbole. These refineries are leaving California.”

Labor representatives agree. The State Building and Construction Trades Council of California said CARB’s new Cap-and-Invest rules fail to protect workers:

“If these regulations are finalized as currently proposed, they would lead to more refinery closures, costing our members their jobs and middle-class livelihoods for their families, while also causing higher pump prices for all Californians.”

In a recent interview, CARB Chair Lauren Sanchez said the agency still has time to make changes to the new rules.

Hopefully they will. California’s access to affordable, reliable fuel supplies depends on it.