Final Persian Gulf Oil Shipment Reaches California Amid Supply Fears
What happens when virtue signaling is mistaken for an energy policy
California has finally won its drawn-out battle against fossil fuels.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, Democrat politicians, eco-activists, and the elite media have long made the oil firms the enemy and made them a target of regulatory attack. A few examples:
- California Losing Important Valero Oil Refinery, Exclusive Supplier of Travis AFB
- California Policymakers Ponder State Ownership of Oil Refineries
- California Sues ‘Big Oil’, Accusing the Companies of Downplaying Climate Risks
- California’s Descent Accelerates as Newsom’s New Bill Dings Oil Companies for “Excessive Profits”
- Refinery Shutdowns, EV Dreams, and $8 Gas: The Price of California’s Climate Delusion
Well, the state may have won the war…as the last California-bound oil tanker to pass through the Strait of Hormuz since war erupted is now offloading its shipment at the Port of Long Beach.
The New Corolla loaded up in Iraq on Feb. 24 — just days before U.S. and Israeli forces launched attacks on Iran, plunging the region into turmoil and sparking a double blockade of commercial shipping.
In two weeks, the Hong Kong-flagged tanker will have fully unloaded at the Marathon Petroleum terminal and departed again for distant waters. After that, California must figure out how to replace some 200,000 barrels of oil a day that will no longer be arriving from the Persian Gulf.
California’s own supply of crude oil has been declining since the 1980s, due to aging fields and a geology that makes drilling particularly costly. The state’s gasoline refining capacity is also falling off, increasing reliance on imports and highlighting California’s status as an isolated energy island without gas pipelines to bring in supply from other states.
Today's cover: Last oil tanker out of Hormuz arrives at California port — with no sign of next shipment. https://t.co/9UrbcdmnRq
Subscribe for home delivery: https://t.co/okw0bmjSRS pic.twitter.com/E5ZN7gg4px
— California Post (@californiapost) May 4, 2026
However, this victory is hollow. And while Americans are getting pinched at the pump, Californians are about ready to be placed on the rack due to the feckless eco-activism of its politicians and bureaucrats.
California may have won the war against Big Oil, but clearly the victory is Phyrric! https://t.co/3qD2C88VRM
— Leslie Eastman ☥ (@Mutnodjmet) May 5, 2026
Those in the oil industry are now enjoying a much-deserved moment of schadenfreude.
Oil giants said the region only had itself to blame and warned drivers and consumers across the West Coast will feel the squeeze.
A spokesman for the Western States Petroleum Association told The Post: “This shows the recklessness of California’s policy of intentionally outsourcing our critical energy infrastructure to other parts of the world.
“California’s economy depends on a reliable supply of fuel – when that supply is interrupted, consumers and business pay the price.”
A spokesman for Chevron, which has been vocal about California’s energy policies, said: “We believe many years of Sacramento’s adversarial policies toward refining and energy production have left the state at the end of a long, fragile supply chain.
Of course, California could have helped itself by allowing oil drilling off the coast of Santa Barbara. Once the first refinery was closed, perhaps the representatives could have heeded petroleum industry warnings.
Now, all that is left is regret…..and Trump-blame.
“With the end of the Middle East conflict nowhere in sight and the average cost of California gasoline topping $6 per gallon, some lawmakers are warning of potential oil and gas shortages.”
Trump chose this war.@BlancaBegert https://t.co/tONAqkExyA
— Mark Z. Barabak (@markzbarabak) May 3, 2026
At this point, the state appears to be relying on stockpiles and other petroleum sources.
California has petroleum stockpiles and can pivot to other sources like Brazil, Ecuador, Guyana, Canada, and increased U.S. domestic crude.
Yet the scramble itself exposes a deeper rot: state-level decisions have made California uniquely vulnerable to supply shocks like the current Middle East disruptions.
Geography does not help. California is an “energy island,” with very limited pipelines from other U.S. regions, forcing tanker imports, typically going through the Panama Canal.
California’s political class spent decades declaring war on the very industry that kept the lights on and the engines of prosperity running.
Now the bill has come due.
The tab isn’t being picked by Newsom or the eco-activists who cheered each refinery closure and filed each climate lawsuit, but by the working families who simply need to fill their tanks and keep their businesses afloat.
The Golden State, once synonymous with innovation and abundance, has engineered its own energy trap through a toxic combination of ideological zealotry, regulatory hostility, and breathtaking incompetence. History will note that California didn’t run out of oil…it simply ran out of the political will to allow it.
The architects of this debacle will, of course, board their private jets, invoke the name of Donald Trump as a ritual incantation, and pivot seamlessly toward the next green fantasy.
The rest of us Californians? We’ll be standing at the pump, staring at prices that would make OPEC blush, paying the full and final cost of being governed by people who mistook virtue signaling for an energy policy.
(Note: Until vote-fraud protections are enacted in this state, do not say we deserve this).
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Comments
It would take a heart of stone not to laugh at this incredibly stupid self-inflicted wound.
Californians who voted for this nonsense and haven’t left deserve the fiscal earthquake that will hit when their very expensive gasoline and diesel becomes scarce or unavailable gasoline and diesel.
What’s particularly amusing is that supply and demand are the very first principles taught in economics, right after the professor introduces himself and goes over the syllabus.
Leaving is not always feasible for the middle class. Agree with you on the blue voters though.
Everyone has choices. Many worthwhile choices involve short term pain/sacrifice for better long-term outcomes. Sell your home, reduce to essentials, put whatever remains into a Uhaul and depart. Get a new job and an apartment elsewhere. Neither may be the exact thing you desire, probably won’t be at first, but it can be done. Settlers going west had it tough, conditions and challenges today don’t come close to unfeasible.
All well and good, but, just try getting a rental truck or trailer out of California. Even back in 2005 when I bailed, having a reservation five weeks in advance was met with having to drive from Camarillo to Paso Robles to get my trailer. The U-Haul lots were stripped of everything that wasn’t local-only equipment.
Meh, load up your vehicle after selling all your non transportable crap. Call for PODS or an old fashioned moving company and bring your clutter with you. Heck abandon it, burn it send it to the land fill. Buy a flatbed trailer and use ratchet straps and and tarps to secure your crap on it.
The larger point is departing CA is very feasible unless one wants to find excuses not to go. That doesn’t mean challenges won’t exist, they will, but dang man a shortage/delay of Uhaul trailer isn’t exactly an insurmountable problem and nowhere close to settlers moving east through the western frontier in the 1800s.
From the article:
“Note: Until vote-fraud protections are enacted in this state, do not say we deserve this).”
Being from Rhode Island I wholeheartedly concur.
So no blame can be attached to the voters of CA for electoral outcomes that drive disastrous policy choices until the same voters of CA muster the political will/power to enact anti-fraud protections? That seems to lengthen the list of action items that CA voters have yet to accomplish v providing any sort of reasonable excuse.
Depart the deep blue States. Stop enabling the d/prog by sending them your taxes, direct and indirect. Stop boosting the economy of these blue States. Stop allowing your very presence in that State to add to their political power by increasing their census count and the # of CD they are allocated.
I get it, leaving for someplace new is a hard decision. Especially if you have long-standing ties to the place. IMO, nostalgia isn’t a good enough reason to stay and support the one party political agenda of d/prog who frankly revile you. If your elderly family members refuse to leave …its a free Country and they are either adults, coherent enough to make that decision and live with the consequences or they aren’t. Allowing someone to weaponize guilt/shame to manipulate your choices is a bad idea.
You will note the post on X in the middle of the article, the writer says Trump is the blame because he chose the war with Iran.
Not one word about the closure of the Vallejo, refinery, lack of pipelines, other states, etc., etc.
So no, they won’t be changing their voting patterns because this is all Trump‘s fault
Politicians everywhere will not learn the lesson that needs to be learnt here.
When you outsource your energy security to parts of the world who are not secure one shouldnt be surprised when sh1t hits the fan in those parts of the world that prices surge in your part of the world.
The Western World has largely outsourced their energy security to the middle east because of Climate Change and green zeal. Because of this Politicians everywhere have a vested interest in specifically NOT learning the lesson that needs to be learnt here.
Instead they will lean even harder in to green zealotry and look harder and harder in the wrong direction.
Former 63 year old California resident here, now an Idahoan. I drove back to SoCal a couple weeks ago for a funeral. When I got into town (Irvine) first thing I did was fill up, price was $6.09/gal for regular. That night I passed the same station, it was $6.22 just 7 hours later. Next day it was $6.30, I just checked online, it’s now $6.50. I kept my tank topped off while there so I would have enough range to get to Alamo or possibly Lund, NV. Eastern NV gets gas from Utah while Las Vegas gets it from California. With California fuel inventories low and supply chains stretched tight, it won’t take much to go from just high prices to actual shortages. I understand Jet A and diesel supplies will be hit hardest, which unfortunately has economic consequences for the rest of the country.
they dont need oil otherwise why would they have shut down refineries and politically attacked oil companies
why that wouldnt make sense on CA’s part
Pyrrhic
So California dodged getting the lesson it deserved…
California is doing their Bandits to make sure that they prove H L Mencken correct. They really need to get it good and hard
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