California’s Energy Policies are a Problem: A Major National Risk?

Energy News Beat

In this episode of Energy Newsbeat – Conversations in Energy, Stuart Turley dives into California’s escalating energy crisis, scrutinizing the impact of Governor Newsom’s policies on both the state’s economy and national security. Experts Ronald Stein and Mike Umbro outline the dangers posed by California’s growing reliance on imported fuel, the closure of in-state refineries, and the increasing dependence on China for energy. They highlight the risks of Newsom’s energy mandates, particularly the push for electric vehicles and refinery shutdowns, which threaten California’s economic stability and security. The discussion calls for a more balanced, hybrid approach to energy policy and urges federal intervention to protect the state’s energy future.

I seriously need to ask the question. When will the showdown between Governor Newsom and President Trump take place?

Ronald brought up a great point: the chart above shows gallons of diesel, jet fuel, and gasoline, and it indicates that demand has not changed due to his climate agenda, but rather the extra costs, regulations, graft, and theft of taxpayers’ money.

Net-zero policies have translated into wealth destruction, deindustrialization, and higher costs to consumers, without any corresponding benefit to the environment. When you consider that there are zero wind turbines in the United States with funding for land reclamation, that bill is coming due quickly. With over 79,000 wind turbines, and a cost estimate of $350,000 to $943,000 to remove each, that bill is huge.

Connect with Ronald on his LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronaldstein/

Check out Ronald on American Outloud here: https://www.americaoutloud.news/author/ronald-stein-p-e/

Connect with Mike Umbro on his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeumbro/

Highlights of the Podcast

00:00 – Intro

01:12 – California’s Energy Crisis

02:05 – National Security Risk

03:32 – Governor Newsom’s Mandates

04:12 – Newsom’s Lawsuit Against the Trump Administration

05:33 – Jet Fuel and Diesel Shortages

06:44 – Kern County and the Potential for Oil Production

08:52 – The Sierra Club’s Influence

10:27 – Electric Vehicle Mandates and Infrastructure

11:33 – Hybrid Vehicles vs. Full Electrification

12:51 – The Real Environmental Impact of EVs

14:10 – The Need for a Hybrid Energy System

15:33 – The Future of Solar and Lithium Batteries

16:28 – California’s Power Grid Challenges

18:09 – The Federal Role in California’s Energy Crisis

20:14 – Oil and Gas as Essential for Infrastructure

23:33 – Nationalizing Refineries for Security

25:24 – The Impact of Climate NGOs

27:43 – California’s Economic Collapse

31:26 – The Risk of Losing California’s Energy Independence

32:09 – The Challenges with Renewable Energy

34:05 – Energy and Data Centers

35:54 – Oil and Gas Backlog

36:28 – California’s Potential for Energy Rebound

39:42 – The Need for Federal Intervention

41:07 – The Sierra Club’s Influence on Policy

43:11 – Conclusion and Future Outlook

Audio from the podcast embed player:

Full Transcript

Stuart Turley [00:00:07] Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Energy Newsbeat podcast. My name’s Stu Turkey, president of the Sandstone Group. Today is an outstanding day because I get to talk to my two favorite Californians. And we talk about my least favorite politician on the planet. And he is Governor Newsom. Governor Newsom is now. Congratulations, Governor Newscam. You have elevated California to a national security risk. And I’ve got the two experts on the line. We’re going to have a great topic. Ronald Stein, author and friend of the show. How are you today, sir? Great

Ronald Stein [00:00:39] Sir, glad to be aboard.

Stuart Turley [00:00:40] All right, and we have the Mike Umbro, not just a Mike Umbreau, the Mike Umbreau. How are you, sir?

Mike Umbro [00:00:47] I’m good. Yeah, it might not be a there might be more of me out there. I think there is one Mike Umbro in New York. So yeah, you have a.

Stuart Turley [00:00:56] You guys are writing some great articles out there and I just want to kind of ask you what is going on We covered this in the last podcast which went nuts had a lot of great downloads people. Love you guys me Not so much, but I tell you what what is Going on with governor news

Ronald Stein [00:01:12] Well, basically, he’s been around 57 years. And in that 57 years, he has yet to comprehend that California is an energy island. We’re separated from the rest of the country by the Sierra Mountain. There’s no pipelines over the Sierra Mountains. So any manufacturing and crude oil fracking done in the Midwest, we have no access. Way to get that oil to California is through the Panama Canal, which is very, very expensive. So we’re an energy island. And we are the fourth largest economy in the world, consuming a bunch of fuel. And that fuel is all being made in state. And with current refineries starting to shut down, that fuel’s not gonna be made in-state and it’s gonna come from somewhere else. And somewhere else is not from another state in the United States. It’s going to come from one of the eight new refineries being completed in China by 2030. They’ll be providing the fuel to California.

Stuart Turley [00:02:05] This just makes me air sick thinking that our jet fuel from China could be laced with something. This is a really big national…

Mike Umbro [00:02:15] Well, it’s at least going to be laced with emissions. So I think what we’re seeing right now is a lack of understanding of basic economic principles. And Governor Newsom, the California Air Resources Board, the mandates they’re pushing across the California economy are not designed by them. They’re designed by environmental activists, they’re designed by the Sierra Club, they are designed by the Center for Biologic Diversity. They’re designed by NGOs that are being canceled, thankfully, by the Trump administration. Because none of these environmental policies, whether it’s the refinery shutdown or the ice vehicle ban. None of those are law. None of those are things that the people of California voted for. And that’s what your listeners do need to recognize and understand. And the people of the United States need to understand. Californians are not voting for these measures, so everybody else needs to come and rally behind us instead of saying, oh, it’s these crazy Californians that are voting for this. No, actually, nobody’s voting for. These things, nobody has voted for any of these things. They’re just mandates by Sacramento.

Stuart Turley [00:03:33] You know, you guys, both of you have made a great thing because I’ve made a joke is I just want to put a wall up and just kind of wall off California, kind of keep the Mexico wall going right on up, up there. And you guys go, look, think about if you don’t change California’s things, it makes President Trump’s numbers look bad. And I’m like, oh, wait a minute, maybe I need to help and try to get this. The fact that Governor Newsom stood up in a rant and started crying that he’s got more law for a 14th lawsuit against the Trump administration in the first hundred days because of this EV mandate is unconstitutional.

Ronald Stein [00:04:14] Well, let me give you some numbers that Newsom can’t deny. California is a big state. We got 145 airports. Most of them are small, but of those 145, nine of them take international flights, and 41 are military. Now, all those airports are consuming 13 million gallons of jet fuel every day. 13 million gallons every day, which is 16 plus percent of the national total, just in California. And that jet fuel is all made in California and, you know, we have 10 million gallons of diesel because with three of the business ports, we’re trucking all that merchandise to the rest of the country. So we’re consuming diesel fuel, which was being made here California. Arizona and Nevada gets most of their fuel from California. And with Phillips shutting down and Valero shutting down, that fuel is going to come from somewhere. And somewhere is going be from eight new refineries. And China’s got coming online by 2030. China will be providing the fuel to run our military airports, to run international airports, and provide the fuel for the trucks to take the products to the rest of the country. Yeah, we are definitely a national security risk. And these refineries shutting down is bringing it to the top of the pile of crap.

Stuart Turley [00:05:33] Mike, you’re an EMP operator that all you need is a permit. You don’t need a hug. I love that line from our last, that last podcast and investing in oil and gas is something that Trump did on his last tour through the, I did not have that kind of a tour where we actually would have a president be treated with respect. We have our great oil and gasses export as a service. Is actually we’ve got oil and gas export as a service means there’s a bromance going on. Someone from oilprice.com had that great quote. I couldn’t create that one. Where we’ve EOG and other companies going to work with Saudi Arabia and Qatar and those things. But I like developing U.S. Buy locally. You’re one of the best buy locally guys I know. And how can we get Kern County rolling again? We just had one of three offshore wells start up again and they got sued the day they fired it back up. You can’t buy this kind of entertainment in California.

Mike Umbro [00:06:44] Well, that’s to be expected, especially when Santa Barbara is the county you’re referencing. Santa Barbara City Council just voted, I think, three to one to pass a measure to ban all onshore oil and gas drilling in Santa Barbara County. They can’t control those offshore platforms, but they can phase it out in this county ordinance. So. What’s happening in Sacramento is Sacramento is playing this game where they’re giving counties primacy over these decisions. And a place like Kern County, you would have county supervisors that overwhelmingly support oil and gas production because it makes Kern County the number one oil producing county in the lower 48 in 2013, not that long ago. And so we know that potential exist. So to answer your question on unleashing Kern County, I think we’ll see. President Trump and Secretary Wright and Secretary Zeldin and Secretary Berger, maybe not altogether, hopefully altogether, but I think they should come to Kern County. And it’s a, it’s the poster child for local energy dominance for buying local energy. Because if there’s one county that can be unleashed more than any other county in the United States, it’s Kern County. And you only know that if you’re a developer there or you care deeply about that environment, that economy, that energy complex, it is all three of those things. We’re talking about energy, environment and the economy. We’re going to need the energy. That’s why Trump went back to Saudi Arabia and he’s doing deals with the middle. We’re gonna need their oil. We’re to need Middle Eastern oil for decades to come. And that’s just that’s the reality of it. And President Trump gets that he’s a businessman. And what we’re seeing in Sacramento is an alignment with China for lithium batteries, for. Photovoltaic solar cells for for all of our critical minerals and now refined product into the California market. Sacramento is choosing to align with Beijing over Bakersfield. That’s a problem. Why would you put Beijing over Bakers field Governor Newsom? Why?

Stuart Turley [00:08:53] I, you know, kind of like Senator Kennedy in the, when he was talking to Secretary Wright, normally Senator Kennedy’s funny is, oh, hey, and he was at a loss for words. I’m over here as a talking podcast goob and I’m going, this is bad. And that’s about all I got. I was like, holy smokes. I can’t even come up with, I need a hug or something. This is like not good. I think the contracts are already signed. I think that if we really dug into it and you could look at Governor Newsom’s desk, I’m going to accuse you right now, Governor Newsome, come on this podcast and tell us that you haven’t signed a deal already, please.

Ronald Stein [00:09:30] When Mike was talking about the oil, the interesting thing is we really don’t need oil. We need the products from oil. We’re a materialistic society. I’ve said this on TV. If you first know the way to make your products, I’m all for it. We’ve had 200 years to replace oil and been unable to do it. It’s the oil derivatives that makes all the infrastructures we have today that didn’t exist 200 years ago. And one of the things that Newsom doesn’t address on his EV mandates is the reality. California is a big state. We got 400,000 miles of roadway in the entire state, and we are paying the most for taxes on fuel. And those taxes basically accumulate like $8.8 billion to maintain those 400,00 miles of highway. Now, two things. One, he’s mandating heavier vehicles to ride on those 400 thousand miles of the roadway. And the $8,8 billion in taxes is gonna go away if we stop using fuel. So you’re gonna tear up the roads and have less money to maintain the road. That’s what he’s mandating. So that’s why they’re.

Stuart Turley [00:10:27] We’re going to 15 minute cities.

Mike Umbro [00:10:29] Well, it’s unnecessary to that’s that’s why you’re seeing the U.S. Senate strike down the ICE vehicle ban, because it’s not number one. It’s not possible. Number two, the data doesn’t support it. We’re currently in California, about 20 percent of new vehicle sales. All right. So you’re nowhere near you’re nowhere near 50 percent market penetration with. $7,500 subsidies per vehicle. So those are going away. And those are going away and the only way to support them in California, which people are starting to uncover is climate fees and programs passed on at the gasoline pump. We pay 55 cents a gallon and that will only go up. So California can incentivize electrification. So it’s, it’s this cascading effect of being costlier and costlier. For somebody to pay for, and a lack of adoption. So how could you make that a law? How could you, how could make that a law in 2035? It will break, and arguably it already has broken the California economy.

Stuart Turley [00:11:33] I want to ask a real question because the hybrid story to me seems like a better story. And I think that a Toyota was of the car manufacturers, the leading in hybrid technology. I’d love to buy a Tesla, a Cybertruck, but it won’t pull my three trailers. I mean, it’d kind of like go a mile. My backhoe would be sitting on the side of the road and somebody would have stole it by now. So I got to have a 350 and if you made a 350 hybrid, It kind of might start cutting down some of the mileage. I wonder why the hybrids haven’t kicked in more.

Ronald Stein [00:12:13] Well, I, as an engineer, I thought that’s fantastic. You buy a hybrid, you know, you blow your gas mileage instantaneously. Right. And half the batteries and you don’t have the weight. It just jacked, jacked. They’re using less fuel, and it’s a way to go. But everybody’s bought into the EVs or nothing. And it’s, you know, the interesting thing, the EV is 100% made with oil. The tires, the insulation, the wires, the computers, I mean, everything. And even the battery, the lithium and the cobalt, all the mining, well, that mining equipment is made from fossil fuels, it’s powered by fuel, and like I say, it is 100 percent oil vehicle.

Mike Umbro [00:12:51] Well, I think what we need to do in one of time today, but in this broader conversation is explain to people that energy is a hybrid system. We’re we’re about 80% fossil fuel driven globally in terms of energy consumed. I need a hug. Well, renewables are coming online and that’s kind of the you know. The non-combustion hybrid element that’s coming on and slowly being adopted, but it’s in any scenario, it’s not 100% of one technology. It’s not a 100% electric vehicle or hydrogen vehicle. It’s just not. And so the general public needs to understand very simple terms like that. Like we need all of it. Okay, let’s agree to that. And then now. We need it affordable. And I think that’s what you’re seeing the federal government try to do by way of, you know, trumping these Newsom mandates. He’s literally trumping the climate agenda. It’s not going to happen. The climate agenda is not going happen for the next four years. It’s done.

Stuart Turley [00:13:59] Uh, I think Ronald was just getting a call from president Trump. So I denied it. No, I thought it was, I thought it was Newsom Newsom was calling. Cause he wanted to be on the podcast. He heard my invitation.

Mike Umbro [00:14:11] He wants to be on that blue sofa back there hanging out.

Stuart Turley [00:14:14] Oh, there you go. No, I don’t want him anywhere near me because the oil slick, I like we were joking before. I swear if he went surfing in the bay, we would have a bigger ecological disaster bigger than the Exxon Valdez with grease ball diving in. I swear he cannot, he should be not allowed to dive in the ocean. That was a good one.

Ronald Stein [00:14:36] The good thing about getting rid of oil, the good thing about getting in oil, you won’t have any grease to comb his hair. Yeah, it’s kind of terrible here.

Mike Umbro [00:14:43] Here. Well, I think on that, since I’ve got that platform behind me and you talked about the platform coming online in Santa Barbara, bringing 6,000 barrels a day online, just coming back online at $60 oil. That’s about $130 million a year, just in top line revenue to that one platform operation. But there’s three platforms there. And they’re planning to ramp up to 60,000 barrels a day. And that’s how that’s how much oil is just offshore Santa Barbara off three platforms in the Santa Ynez complex that has been there forever. Well, that that we know we’re there because the the Chumash were coating their boats in their homes with with the the brea that was seeping out of the ground and still seeped out of the ground, but that 60,00 barrels a day is one point three. Billion dollars in revenue at $60 oil. So these are the things Governor Newsom needs to recognize. Oil and gas, not only is it totally abundant, it’s totally affordable, it creates jobs, it improves the environment by reducing natural seeps into our oceans and producing the product responsibly. It can pay for his hair gel bill, it can pay for everything. Whatever you want to talk about. But again, it goes back to these NGOs that have controlled the narrative that have that have bought and paid for these city council members to believe the nonsense that we should shut down our own people’s jobs and import a product with worse environmental impact and then bring it to our grid or our fuel tanks at a higher price. It’s the greatest Ponzi scheme ever created is the climate and programs that we’re paying for.

Stuart Turley [00:16:29] Mike, do you see that it getting any better with USAID and the other doge and the other sources of their funding appear to be drying up? Do you see it getting less painful from these NGOs?

Mike Umbro [00:16:45] Absolutely, I think the era of those big climate NGOs is over, at least for four years as it should be. And now the Department of Energy and the federal government can get back to funding research and grants that are actually meaningful work that where you see all the posts on X where on USA like this tiny fraction of the dollars are actually going to the people that need it and 80% of it is just like vanishing and it’s gone. That’s that’s why it was so important to get rid of the green new scam. It’s not. And look, I’m a developer of GeoTest. I’m an developer using concentrated solar. I’m, a developer integrating technologies, and I still don’t believe. That these programs should exist in the function they were under President Biden because there was so much waste, fraud, and abuse. So yeah, I do think it’s going to get better because they’re going to cancel the NGOs getting money out of all of these grants. And then they’re gonna put the money actually into the projects in our national laboratories that we have control and oversight over that we can visibly audit and say, okay, Where is every dollar if it is a subsidy or a grant? Let’s make sure every one of those dollars goes to the developer or the national laboratory that’s partnered with that developer. All of it stays in the United States.

Stuart Turley [00:18:11] Utah and Wyoming and several others are major oil-producing states on federal land. Is there a lot of federal land that can be opened up for oil and gas exploration?

Mike Umbro [00:18:24] In Kern County, there’s a tremendous amount. When you look at the acreage, it’s checkerboard throughout the west side of the San Joaquin Valley between private land and federal land. So there’s there’s big opportunity in California for sure.

Stuart Turley [00:18:37] Because everybody’s talking about peak oil and peak Permian oil. And I have to say that I do not believe that peak oil is here yet, because as Ronald has pointed out aptly that we need products. And I think that as long as India is doing extremely well and is going to become the largest oil importer, if China can get back on its feet and the trading bloc with the EU is more solidified and they can replace the United States money that they were shipping to us with money that they’re now shipping to the EU and the EU becomes slaves to China, that’s gonna be a lot of oil demand that’s going to be going on. I see great things for the United states. I’d love to see those refineries not close. Holy smokes, but I wouldn’t want to do business with Governor Newsom.

Ronald Stein [00:19:34] Well, you know, Mike, so are you on oil. The thing that Newsome doesn’t recognize is that we’re a materialistic society. And to support all the infrastructures we have, that’s the only source we have right now is oil. He’s got no backup plan. Once you get rid of oil, well, if you get out of oil… We populated from one to 8 billion people in 200 years, not because of oil but because of the products. We have hospitals, we have airports, sanitation, we got running water. It’s amazing. We’re just a materialistic society. And right now, oil is the only known way to support that need. And you get rid of oil, you probably get rid of a couple billion people who come back in the 1800s.

Stuart Turley [00:20:14] I just did a piece on the California water which is related to oil because you got to have a lot of oil to frack. I don’t know how much fracking goes on in Kern County or in those other areas. Are they primarily standard, typical well types where they’re not doing a lot of fracking?

Mike Umbro [00:20:32] Fracking was banned by Governor Newsom via executive order. So right around 2013, when we were the top producing county in the lower 48 fracking was helping to unleash production and today there there’s no fracking. There is a lawsuit though filed by Chevron and ERA, the larger operators in California regarding hydraulic fracturing. And I think it’s from what I understand going well, but in terms of. Hydraulic fracturing in California when it was allowed. There was a study in 2015 by Lawrence Berkeley National Lab that showed fracking in California used less water than other shale plays. It did not extend oil field boundaries. In other words, it was employed in the existing oil fields that have been drilled and developed for 120 years. It reduced carbon intensity per barrel because you’re increasing the production. But you’re not needing as much equipment to get it out, or in some cases, you’re not using natural gas to fire a steam generator. So you’re lowering the carbon intensity of your barrel of oil produced. There was no evidence of groundwater contamination because in the places where our oil fields exist on the west side, where fracking was taking place, There are no USDs to foul, so it is not threatening. The water quality for anybody’s agricultural well or anybody’s drinking water. So if you read that 2015 report, which obviously I did, you would you would want more fracking in California and it would further support the fact that there are billions of barrels of reserves or resources in place in California. In 2018, we had more. Proved oil reserves in the county of Kern than the entire state of Colorado. And to put that in perspective today, Colorado is the third largest producing state in the country. There’s more approved reserves in Kern County than that entire state. That’s what we’re talking about here. That is what President Trump and Secretary Wright and Secretary Burgum and Secretary Zeldin need to hear because it’s something on the order of 30 billion barrels of resources just in Kern County.

Stuart Turley [00:22:51] This is such a national security issue that as a United States citizen, I would not normally even utter these words, but nationalizing the refinery for our military almost makes sense to just put governor Newsom out on a raft and throw him out there and let the sharks play with him for a while, but we have got to have our military with diesel, with jet fuel. And everything else and it almost makes sense that this is an executive order has to happen to protect our military, our gasoline and our diesel in California. Is that an unfair statement or am I just smoking crack?

Ronald Stein [00:23:34] That’s very fair. You know, I summarize it with two sentences when we talk about Governor Newsom. There’s one second pause between the sentences. First sentence for Governor Newsom was doing a fantastic job. Pause, pause. I’m killing the California economy. He couldn’t do a better job.

Stuart Turley [00:23:49] Man, but, you know, if we don’t get federal, when is Newsom’s last term over? 26 terms, but he’s only he’s in his last year. Turns out next year. Who is the next supposed front runner? I don’t know. There is one at this point. I don’t know. The Newsom still has his eyes set on running for president. He is just, he’s only a good looking version of Kamala Harris that has the brain power of a potato bud. Kamala is where Gavin is dangerous is because he’s a smooth talker, but I think people are onto him. I don’t know that he would have a chance. We’ll see.

Mike Umbro [00:24:28] I think the whole Democratic Party is in shambles, obviously, there is no clear leader, there is no clearer vision for how to frame an appropriate energy policy that people can have. So I think it’s, it’s just something that we need to recognize. This is an emergency, like today, it said, I know we’re talking about 2026, but

Stuart Turley [00:24:53] We do know we got to solve it now because the voter fraud issue, I got shut down a bunch by saying, Hey, voter fraud. And then you get shut down. By the way, I think there’s voter fraud in California at Texas. Texas just booked six people for voter fraud, they shut an whole organization down for printing ballots. It happens in the U S I hate to be the bearer of bad news. If we don’t get us citizens voting only in our elections, We’re gonna have some problems.

Mike Umbro [00:25:25] Yeah, well, I and I think I don’t really study voter fraud, but I think there is tremendous fraud happening. Yes, fraud that I look at is at the gasoline pump. Oh, snap. We’re paying 17 plus billion dollars a year in California at the gasoline pump and state taxes and climate fees that is funding things like the California high speed rail. I live in North County, San Diego. The actual rail, just the Amtrak, the one line that we have currently, the snail rail, whatever you want to call it, is falling into the ocean. The cliffs are crumbling in Del Mar, in Solana Beach across North County, San Diego. So they need billions of dollars just to fix the one rail line that connects. San Diego, where you have a port and where you have Marine, you know, Marines, Navy, other, other that need delivery of product via freight. It goes on that rail. So it’s one of those things where there’s fraud happening at the pump that we’re paying gasoline taxes and fees. This is going to special projects like high speed rail. Are going to cost $40 billion and never be completed. Meanwhile, the existing infrastructure is crumbling. And those are the things you see a lot of people on X that are San Diego locals, Los Angeles locals, just people like me posting selfies of, hey, I’m in front of this, you know, crumbling sidewalk in downtown L.A. Hey, I am looking at this homeless encampment right here. I’m looking at, you know and starting to think about the rail that’s crumbling that wouldn’t it be nice to have. Our existing Amtrak and Freightline available in 20 years. Well, let’s fix that first. So all of these things. And I think that’s another beautiful part that is going to weed out the voting issues because President Trump, Secretary Zeldin’s been to the Tijuana sewage spill happening just south of me, fouling our our waters for our Navy SEALs to train in there. They’re starting to shine a light on all of this little. Little. All of these big problems in California. But you know, when you kind of start shining a light on the whole state, you realize, wow, this, this really has national implications, security risk, cost of goods, everything.

Stuart Turley [00:27:43] You’re about to go there, Ronald. No, we’re in Hollywood. It’s so dark. No, I was you and you look like you’re about to say something and I was I was I didn’t want to cut you off. No, no, I’m just.

Ronald Stein [00:27:56] Leslie and Mike’s 100% correct. And it’s you can’t make this stuff up. It’s crazy.

Stuart Turley [00:28:01] If we get, and A, I don’t think peak oil is here, B, I think peak Hermian oil may be here because of water. And that goes back to my other comment about water in Kern County. The water mismanagement in California is pathetic. The number of dams that have been closed shows up with a Palisades fire. And then the regulatory process is, oh my gosh, that whole thing is just another mess, but we’ll leave that for a different somebody else to cover those bad dogs. The EIA just put out the three states of Washington, Oregon, and California looked to have a 7% increase in hydroelectric power this year, which is fantastic. But you look at the number of dams that have been torn down between those three states, it’s pathetic because they tore down good working electric providing dams, that they had fish ramps to and had absolutely no reason to tear them down, except for the NGOs trying to do climate good in their view. And they tear down good, working hydroelectric dams. I don’t get it. Save the middle. Yeah, I don’t

Mike Umbro [00:29:17] The irony is that the climate has saved the grid on the West Coast the past three years because it’s been so rainy and it’s filled the reservoirs and it has brought back to the EIA’s data. It’s brought back hydroelectric capacity. So, the climate has actually saved the grid in the recent years, but if you’re removing that infrastructure, it’s going to create a bigger problem down the road. When we have like 2020, when the reservoirs were not full, and we all got the text message to turn off our appliances and unplug our electric vehicles in California because we don’t have enough power. And that massive issue is very much lurking in the shadows. People only talk about this issue. When when we’re actually out of power. Right. There is no more power in California. Try to build a project in California that’s going to require power. And the utilities will tell you we can’t service you.

Stuart Turley [00:30:20] I just did a report on AI. I’ve got a new podcast series coming out with AI and the impact in energy. And I did a study and I looked at where can data centers be rolling out in the United States? Guess where they’re not rolling out. They are not rolling out in California, Washington, Delaware, New Jersey, New York. Can you see a pattern? Power and permits. Power and Permits and Democrat Run. And this is absolutely pathetic that you cannot plan. The other big one that’s coming around the corner is natural gas power plants. The turbines have been sold out for the next four years. So, not only are we limited by the number of turbines that we can put in, you can’t attach enough We’re going to turn into Spain very quickly in Barcelona in the, in that peninsula, they lost a solar power for three seconds, three seconds in 55 million people went without power. Right.

Ronald Stein [00:31:27] You know, the irony of the whole thing is because of what Mike’s been talking about and you’ve been talking, Stuart, is that California imports more electricity than any other state in the country. We import about 30% of our electricity. And most of it’s coming from coal-fired power plants outside the borders of California. Defies logic.

Mike Umbro [00:31:44] Natural gas fired plants. And so we’re importing 30% of that product and 43% of our grid is still natural gas fire. So again, back to that hybrid discussion, it’s very much a hybrid grid. Now you need all of it. And when you don’t have that inertia on the grid, the lights go out and oops, it’s no bueno in California. No bueno.

Stuart Turley [00:32:11] In my particular situation, I’ve got one of my solar panel sets and a solar panel generator that I’ve gotten not only twin propane powered generators, I got big propane tanks as backups, but I also have it set up so that I can have solar power and everything else. And I took one of sets up to my neighbor. He’s been four days without power. And so I just brought some of my spare gear up to him. And the reason I’m saying this is we all need to prepare no matter if it’s a national, a natural disaster or a manmade cyber attack. The other big thing that just came out that is hitting the wire is the Chinese. Spyware that is in the solar panels in the SCADA equipment. Oops. So as California is putting in more of this crap on the grid, solar panels are a major problem with the equipment.

Mike Umbro [00:33:14] So I think I think we’ve I think we’ve actually peaked in terms of solar installations and lithium batteries or near peak. That’s great.

Stuart Turley [00:33:25] But it’s still bad

Mike Umbro [00:33:26] Well, it’s still we’re vulnerable and you’re still going to have to replace the photovoltaic cells every 20 years and the batteries every three to five years or whatever. So we’re, we’re we’re peaking there because the grid cannot handle more. It’ll take it. Where are we already have the duck curve. You already have negative pricing during the day. Texas is now facing a duck curve scenario. And so I talk often about the fact that everybody don’t don’t California, my Texas, don’t do that. Well, you did it to yourself then, because now you have a duck curve and now now your energy prices are going to go up. And it’s it’s yeah.

Stuart Turley [00:34:06] I resemble that remark, thank you.

Mike Umbro [00:34:09] Well, it’s, but I think Texas is going to continue to deploy significant amounts of photovoltaic and lithium batteries till it gets to this breaking point that it’s already got in California where PG&E and again, the utilities are saying, we don’t want your solar and lithium interconnection request. We don’t it. We can’t handle any more of it. That’s what’s happening. And That’s why you’re seeing micro grids being developed. Real estate developers and commercial developers, and any kind of a developers, if they’re building something in California, they’re saying, okay, how do I build my own power plant? Because I can’t get power, I can interconnect because everything is literally toast. It’s toast. And if you’re a no AI data. In less than seven or 10 years. So yeah, if you are an AI or data center and you’re someone. Oh, OK, we’ll build you a data center in 2040. OK, that’s about when we can get your permits and your power. How’s 2040 sound? That’s the proposition in California, literally.

Stuart Turley [00:35:16] Yeah. Wow. The number one places to build a data center are Texas and Pennsylvania. Why?

Mike Umbro [00:35:24] Maybe fastest growing. There’s also Virginia and Arizona.

Stuart Turley [00:35:28] Well, right now it’s the pipelines. Yeah, the pipeline and the Marcellus are up in both of those in Pennsylvania and up in there. And so you take a look at where you can get natural gas, you can kick a rock very much like you can in California. Natural gas is very nicely well done in the Marsellus, the Haynesville and in Texas. So it just depends on where that is. What are you guys?

Mike Umbro [00:35:55] But then you’re also, how do you solve the backlog, four years out for a turbine? It’s exactly right.

Stuart Turley [00:36:03] We’re limited, we’re seeing some huge limitations. And until we get the steel done, oh, how is steel made? You can only make green steel with wind power but you have to use recycled steel, you can’t use new ore. Oh, so you gotta use coking coal. Cole is back. King Cole is not. I’m not quite dead yet. Like my favorite movie, Monty Python. I’m not quite did yet. What do you see coming around the corner guys, other than oil in Kern County going, I’m not quite dead yet

Mike Umbro [00:36:41] He he he.

Ronald Stein [00:36:42] Well, you know, the reality is this, limiting the local supply of fuels and the products made from oil without reducing the demand doesn’t solve the climate challenge. It just simply shifts the environmental and social impacts overseas. Often the countries with less stringent environmental protections and less stringet labor laws. So we exploit people in poor countries so we can go green.

Mike Umbro [00:37:06] Wow, you want the you want the Kern County forecast? Yeah, you.

Stuart Turley [00:37:10] And just tell me what you think.

Mike Umbro [00:37:11] So here’s what I think will happen. I think the BLM will open up leasing and drilling and hopefully

Stuart Turley [00:37:18] Bureau of Land Management.

Mike Umbro [00:37:19] Yes, and hopefully hydraulic fracturing on BLM lands in Kern County and across California, specifically Kern County. I think we will see President Trump and Secretary Wright visit Bakersfield to highlight the national security issue, the fact that we have Naval Petroleum Reserves in Kern County. We have huge potential in Kern County, but sadly, I don’t think the industry is going to be able to bounce back, certainly not in time to save California from this self-induced energy crisis. I think we’re gonna have eight to $10 gasoline. I think, we’re going to continue to have the highest utility bills in the country. I think you’re going to see an exodus of population from California. I know we kind of, we saw a lot of people leave and then they opened up the borders and then people came back illegally and. People of California that are actually from California are now burdened with paying for people that are illegally here. So I think you’re going to see the administration again, deporting people and getting California to its roots into a sustainable situation, at least from whatever the federal government can control. And then hopefully we see 2026 and 2027 politicians that are elected that care about affordable, reliable energy. I don’t care if they’re a Democrat or a Republican really, as long as they start to recognize their policies are hurting those that can least afford it. And if you’re poor, you don’t what someone’s ideology is. You care about someone. Bringing you affordability, that’s all they care about. And so whoever brings that message is going to control Sacramento. And so we’re also, that kind of the last thing I’ll say is I think California is going do slowly. Boomerang back to the middle where you’re going to have policies that are not all or nothing electrification, but are recognizing that the rest of the United States is going to pass us by because they will have affordable, reliable energy. They will have permitting. They will have an unleashed framework. So we need to unleash California, but it’s going to take a long time to fix this problem. This is a crisis.

Stuart Turley [00:39:43] Governor Newsom really left his mark in California, and it was kind of like Biden’s underpants.

Mike Umbro [00:39:49] Well, and it’s the supermajority, too, because it’s a whole group-think mentality that’s been building in Sacramento since the early 2000s. The best thing President Trump could do is revoke the tax-exempt status of any entity related to the Sierra Club. Center for Biologic Diversity, any of the NGOs that are literally, they score how the politicians in Sacramento vote. Sierra Club has a report card. How can a tax exempt entity, and I know they have several entities, some of which are not tax exempt, but how can that framework exist? Where a dark money NGO climate catastrophe Sierra Club can literally control the votes of elected officials in Sacramento. With a scorecard, they publish every time they vote. That’s crazy. Are you kidding me? I mean, that’s that. And so I think President Trump has talked about this, about revoking their tax exempt status. So I think I think that my opinion is that’s more important than anything Governor Newsom says or does. I did not know that. That is that is the level of importance of eliminating the Sierra Club’s tax exempt. Status.

Ronald Stein [00:41:08] Wow. Couldn’t say it ain’t a better, I agree 100%. Wow, do you have anything to pig pile on that? It isn’t 40 mile work, we’re crap on crap on. It’s the…

Mike Umbro [00:41:16] It’s the beauty of what President Trump is doing. He’s dismantling all of this at the federal level and he’s going to work his way. We’re seeing it. We are only a hundred and whatever, a hundred fifteen days in. We all need to push for four years to give President Trump and those that are in Washington DC these very specific examples. Please destroy the Sierra Club. Thank you.

Stuart Turley [00:41:42] Have a great day and yeah.

Mike Umbro [00:41:44] We’ve got to just put a pin exactly where it needs to go.

Stuart Turley [00:41:49] You know, it’s kind of like Dr. Patrick Moore, when I interviewed him twice, who was the founder of Greenpeace. Love him. Greenpeace, when it was started, actually was a good organization. In the first 15 years, I always thought it was a bunch of crazies all the time. I enjoyed my two, two hour, each one was two hours with him. He was brilliant. He was on target. And the organization got hijacked. And I believe the Sierra Club may have gotten hijacked as well too, over the time.

Mike Umbro [00:42:20] May May May the Sierra Club is is way out in left field about as far. They’re in foul territory. They’re so left field foul. I love it. I mean, you’re talking about the dam removals. Sierra Club, I guarantee you, is on a lawsuit to remove the dams. You talk about, you know, natural gas bands, internal combustion engine bands. All of these things that we’re talking about are front and center issues. It’s the main reason the Sierra club exists today is to. Scare the general public into thinking that their appliances and their vehicles are killing them when they’re not. And then to make these things cost prohibitive by filing lawsuits against developers of energy projects that are trying to provide affordable, reliable, local, clean energy to the people of California. It’s an evil organization that needs to be destroyed.

Stuart Turley [00:43:12] Wow, I like the way you think.

Mike Umbro [00:43:15] Well, I’m much more I’m much more stoked to pile on to these organizations than these elected officials, because it’s it’s it’s, it’s too partisan when we’re bashing Newsome for me anyway. I mean, I don’t I think Newsome, I think the root of his ideology is. The Sierra Club, which is probably a massive donor to his political career. That makes it all of these politicians. So they’re just those politicians are just the figureheads. And they’re just parroting whatever the Sierra club wants them to say.

Stuart Turley [00:43:49] Well, I absolutely respect your, you and your opinion, both of you, uh, Ronald and, and Mike, Ronald, how do people find you?

Ronald Stein [00:43:57] Just Google my name, Ronald Stein Energy Literacy, and it’ll pop up and yeah, I’m all over the internet. So, you can contact me. And Mike, how do people find you?

Mike Umbro [00:44:07] Please visit our website, energyandscience.com, and get involved with Californians for Energy and Science.

Stuart Turley [00:44:14] I love it. Well, thank you all so much for coming by the podcast. And I think we made some headway in this. We can get president Trump on a podcast to talk about this. Let’s see if we can get him a little more involved in this national security problem that we got here, because this is huge. And I’m not seeing it being talked about in this light as a national security issue.

Mike Umbro [00:44:37] It’s it’s coming. It’s coming to the Olympics and the World Cups are coming to a Los Angeles where half the cities burned down and they can’t get permits. So President Trump’s not going to let that happen. The next the next 180 days. I think you’re going to see. Wow. Get a big physical exam from the federal government.

Stuart Turley [00:44:57] Well, with that horrible thought and that snap of a rubber glove, we will call this a show.

The post California’s Energy Policies are a Problem: A Major National Risk? appeared first on Energy News Beat.