After years of making it difficult for California’s oil and refining industry, the state is trying to make amends. The state’s legislature passed a law allowing 2,000 drilling permits in Kern County each year for the next ten years.
It is not because they see oil and refining as good business. It is because they see it as necessary business.
Oil companies have been leaving California due to its tax and regulatory climate. It was coming down to the wire with the last two refiners in the state planning to leave. It was cost prohibitive to stay and to continue to buy foreign oil.