California’s Oil Refining System Has Collapsed, and One Region Is Ground Zero

[IsailedawayfromFR]

The state is about to explode.
I had not thought about the military bases located there requiring fuel as well. 

While location requires some to be there,  perhaps a few not required to be there will close and reappear in other states as a consequence of mismanagement by California.

This will further the decline of what was once a great state.

California’s Oil Refining System Has Collapsed, and One Region Is Ground Zero
By Steve Williams January 31, 2026

Californians have lived with the consequences of bad energy policy for years. Those consequences are now visible in real infrastructure, real supply constraints, and real risk. And they are showing up in one place more than anywhere else.

California’s 66th Assembly District (AD-66).
AD-66 is home to Chevron’s El Segundo refinery and PBF Energy’s Torrance refinery. And until the end of last year, it was also home to Phillips 66’s Los Angeles refinery, which has now stopped producing transportation fuel entirely. Three major refineries in one Assembly district. One is already offline. Two remain, operating under growing regulatory and economic pressure.

That did not happen by chance.

Over the last four decades, California has steadily reduced its in-state refining footprint through a mix of regulatory pressure, capital flight, and policy uncertainty. In the early 1980s, California had more than 40 operating refineries. Today, it effectively has nine refineries producing transportation fuel at scale.

As facilities closed, capacity did not disappear evenly. It compressed into fewer locations, fewer districts, and fewer communities. AD-66 is where that compression landed.

A System With No Slack
With so few refineries supplying gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel for nearly forty million residents, the nation’s largest port complex, major agricultural regions, and a logistics network that supports the broader U.S. economy, the system has no margin for error. https://redstate.com/steve-williams/2026/01/31/californias-oil-refining-system-has-collapsed-and-one-region-is-ground-zero-n2198685#google_vignette

[Hoodat]

California’s Oil Refining System Has Collapsed

California's oil refining system is doing exactly what a majority of its voters chose for it to do.  They should be ecstatic.  It's not often where government delivers on what the majority voted for it to do.

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The problem is, Arizona gets about a 3rd of its gasoline supply from California refineries. That's going to drive prices higher in Arizona.

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I have long said that a new refinery should be built in Mexico, either in Baja or somewhere in Sonora close to Puerto Peñasco.  It could be built there for half the price of a US refinery, and could supply the SW with gasoline.