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California Oil Production Not Really Being Cut Very Much After All

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced a plan to ban new fracking permits by 2024 and end all oil production by 2045. That all sounds good, but there's less here than meets the eye.

We had a brief fracking frenzy a few years ago over the newly discovered Monterey Shale Formation, but it eventually turned out to be a little less lucrative than everyone thought at first. It currently accounts for only about 2% of California's total oil production.

Still, it's good to put an end to it before it grows any larger. At the same time, it's just one piece of a California oil picture that looks like this:

At the current rate of extraction, California's oil reserves will be nearly entirely gone by 2045 no matter what Newsom does. Ditto for oil production:

Newsom's decision is welcome, but he's really not asking anyone to keep any oil in the ground. The plan is basically to allow all the oil to be extracted and then to ban further extraction when there's none left anyway. The bans are a good idea, but don't get the idea that they're game changers. They aren't.

14 thoughts on “California Oil Production Not Really Being Cut Very Much After All

  1. J. Frank Parnell

    ". . . and then to ban further extraction when there's none left anyway."

    Experience has shown the frackers will spend all kinds of money trying all sorts of destructive techniques to get more oil out of "depleted" wells. It doesn't really matter if it is a money loser, they will try anyway unless prevented by law.

  2. Mitchell Young

    Nothing like eliminating good paid jobs. Especially if done by working class white men mostly.

      1. Mitchell Young

        Well, I can't say that I'm very current on it, but 20 years ago the offshore rigs were manned (yes, manned) by whites, particularly Cajuns. Of course that's not real helpful for California's employment.

  3. Midgard

    Ah yes, Gavin "virtue signaling" Newsom is as bad as Donald "virtue signaling" Trump(see his Cyber, Ninja con whining about fantasy "bamboo" ballets from China(which is what exposes it as a Trumpco front, Trump never wants his Chinese connections exposed, but they supported him in the election from a monetary standpoint). Much like Rabbi Trump, little Anglo-Gavin won't be Gov. much longer. On the plus side, his silly "woke" stuff will be toast, even if replaced by another Democrat.

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