Drill, California — Drill! | by RedState Guest Editorial

By Steve Williams

The recent U.S. strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities just handed California’s leaders a rare, high-stakes moment to correct course — and reassert the state as a pillar of American energy dominance. For years, they’ve crippled California’s oil industry with suffocating regulations, shuttered wells, and forced refinery closures — betraying American workers, families, and national security in the name of political theater. Now, with global energy markets on edge and hostile regimes tightening their grip, California has the resources, infrastructure, and workforce to lead. The only question is whether its leaders have the spine to act.

They can drill, build, and put California’s oil industry back on top — or kneel, crumble, and let America’s enemies call the shots. The choice is theirs.

With Iran’s Parliament voting to close the Strait of Hormuz — the vital chokepoint funneling nearly 20 percent of the world’s oil supply — energy prices are threatening to skyrocket past $100 a barrel. Every American family will feel the sting: higher grocery bills, soaring utility costs, and painful prices at the pump. Yet despite this looming crisis, over 60 percent of the oil processed in California’s refineries in 2024 was imported from foreign nations — handing America’s energy future to unstable regimes while driving up costs at home.

How can a state with 1.7 billion barrels of oil beneath its soil and offshore waters — the fifth-largest proven reserves in the country — keep its hands tied while prices threaten to surge, enemies profit, and Californians pay the price?

Since 1985, California’s oil production has collapsed by roughly 70 percent, plummeting from 394 million barrels to just 112 million barrels last year. Meanwhile, California’s refineries — among the largest and most advanced in the nation — process over 1.6 million barrels of crude daily. But facilities like Phillips 66 in Wilmington and Valero’s Benicia refinery are now under threat, not from market forces, but from misguided political pressure.

This crisis demands that California stop bowing to environmental extremists and start drilling responsibly — creating good-paying, union jobs and protecting American energy security. The time is now to fast-track permits, revitalize existing fields, expand pipelines, and upgrade key ports like Los Angeles and Long Beach. This isn’t rhetoric — it’s the strategy for cutting costs, fueling growth, and ending our dependence on enemies abroad.

California’s oil industry supports more than 536,000 jobs and generates over $60 billion annually in tax revenue. In Kern and Ventura Counties, energy jobs are the backbone of local communities. Shutting down wells doesn’t protect the environment — it just ships jobs and emissions overseas to places like Iran, Venezuela, and Russia, where there are no safeguards and zero accountability.

Of course, environmental concerns deserve attention. But California’s oil production already operates under the world’s strictest regulations — with aggressive oversight on air, water, and emissions. Shutting down domestic production doesn’t reduce global pollution — it simply outsources it and weakens our national defense.

History proves what happens when we unleash American energy. Prices fall. Jobs grow. Power shifts away from rogue regimes. During President Trump’s first term, the U.S. became the world’s top energy producer, and gas prices dropped. That wasn’t a fluke — it was leadership. California has the potential to do the same, if its leaders have the backbone to act.

That means cutting through the red tape strangling production, shielding refineries from political sabotage, modernizing infrastructure, expanding throughput, and training the next generation of oil workers. It also means embracing innovation — from carbon capture to methane control — to ensure our production is clean, efficient, and future-proof.

The U.S. strike on Iran may have rattled a fragile supply chain, but it also opened a door for California. Instead of watching prices rise while we import dirty, unstable crude, we can stabilize the market, grow middle-class jobs, and secure our future.

If the Strait of Hormuz closes tomorrow, California must be ready to fuel its people and our allies — not depend on nations that hate us. This isn’t just an energy debate. It’s a national security test. An economic fight. A defining moment of leadership.

California has a choice: continue marching down the path of energy surrender — or rise, lead, and power America.

Unleash our reserves. Drill, California — drill!

Steve Williams is a seasoned technology, real estate, and land use professional and Executive Board member of the Republican Party of Los Angeles County. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/SteveAWilliamsX.