Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) told Breitbart News in an interview that the energy companies’ exodus from the Golden State proves that Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) would be a terrible president.
Lummis spoke to Breitbart News as an ever-growing number of billionaires, CEOs, and major corporations, especially energy companies, are fleeing California for red states, pointing to lower taxes, fewer regulations, and friendlier business climates.
“This is Gavin Newsom proving, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he would be a terrible president because he just doesn’t understand the economy,” Lummis told Breitbart News.
“Honestly, when I visit California, I just think, this is one of the most beautiful, diverse places on Earth, and it’s destroyed itself,” she added.
This includes energy producing companies such as:
- Chevron, which is relocating from San Ramon, California, to Houston, Texas.
- Oil refiner Phillips 66 announced in late October it will “cease operations at its Los Angeles-area refinery in the fourth quarter of 2025.”
- Valero shut down its Benicia refinery.
- GAF Energy last year closed its San Jose headquarters and will relocate to Texas.
Many of these energy companies have warned the Newsom government that its proposed amendments to the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) Cap-and-Invest program would destroy what remains of the state’s oil refineries.
The Cap-and-Invest program would place strict limits on greenhouse gas emissions, limits that will decrease each year.
PBF Energy warned that if the CARB amendments are enacted as written, they “will inevitably drive in-state refining capacity to zero.”
In early March, Chevron called the investments a “death knell” for its remaining facilities. It threatened to shutter its Richmond and El Segundo refineries.
Lummis said that “some of those companies have predicted that by 2030, which is now right around the corner, that there will be no refining in California, none. So even right now, they are importing 70 percent of their gas and diesel, right?”
She added, “They are really putting themselves in a foreign dependency on oil when the rest of the country is becoming energy independent.”
In contrast to California, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved TerraPower’s construction permit for the Kemmerer Power Station in western Wyoming.
“This is a massive move for American energy independence. Wyoming has always powered this nation. Now we’re leading the next generation of nuclear energy technology,” Lummis wrote on March 4 in a post on X.
The NRC noted in March that this is the first commercial reactor construction approval in ten years.
