What happened to the MAGA promise of American energy independence?

The key takeaway is that Big Oil CHOOSES not to build/upgrade/renovate refineries, not that they nobly strive to do so but the Evil Deep State thwarts them at every turn. They've spent tens of billions of $$$ on skillfully crafted propaganda to make the American public think the latter. It's been quite successful.

If they have any vision--and there's no reason to think that they don't, they're not stupid--they must realize that the demand for fossil fuels must gradually slacken over time. Most people 50 years ago though that would happen as supplies ran out. What's actually happening, and happening sooner, is that fossil fuels are slowly becoming obsolete--and/or there are higher and better uses for petroleum products than burning them.

Thus, building new refineries and/or expensively rehabbing old ones might be like a horse-and-buggy manufacturer in 1897 building a bunch of new factories. Maybe Big Oil sees the handwriting on the wall?

Businesses can and should use a portion of their profits to upgrade their infrastructure.

Thats what companies do with their profits.  They reinvest in exploration (costs millions), and when finding a spot spend millions drilling

 A drilling rig typically costs $100,000 to $25,000,000+ in 2026. Older used rigs commonly fall around $100,000–$1,000,000, late-model land rigs often land in the $2,000,000–$10,000,000 range, and high-spec automated walking rigs can reach $25,000,000+. Pricing swings most with top drive vs. rotary table, the walking/skidding system (and its load rating), and the mud-pump package (pump count and pressure rating).

Millions are spent before 1 drop of oil comes out of the ground.

In 2024, exploration expenditures in the oil and gas industry are projected to average around $1.4 billion per company per year (Energy Dept)

I think the shortage of refinery capacity is due to many factors. Over regulation might be a part of that. Corporate corruption and cronyism is almost certainly a larger contributor to the problem.

Why should a company invest millions in upgrades when the state can decide how much inventory or how much profit the refinery can make?  And then pass some more laws requiring the plant to spend even more money.  At some point the cost of operating the plant exceeds the revenue.

Upgrading an oil refinery involves significant financial investment, which can vary widely based on several factors. The cost of upgrading an oil refinery can range from $5 million for minor upgrades to $50 million or more for major enhancements.

Az and NV are deeply affected by these closings as well as OR and WA

I agree that the State shouldn't be dictating production or doing other price fixing schemes. Looks like these businesses will vote with their feet and wallets and leave the state. 

Live - that's what they are doing. Unfortunately the shutting of Ca refineries due to dumb regulations has a cascading effect on other states who get their oil from Ca. 

Side note. Every single product that is manufactured, produced or transported in a modern society uses fossil fuel. 

To think that fossil fuel will be gone in 50 years is delusional. 

I think it is wise to have a diverse energy portfolio and always try to discover new technologies. That of course doesn't mean we have to demonize the current technology. 

I too doubt that we will be running out of oil within the next 50 years. The methods of extraction are constantly improving and we are able to get at sources that were unreachable previously. 

Yeah, in 1875, it would have been "delusional" to suggest that we wouldn't need horses to get around or that "flying machines" would be used for transport. In 1965, cell phones, personal computers, and the Internet were just "delusional" sci-fi stuff.

Any fool can see that fossil fuels are already obsolete as power sources. There's not a single function performed by fossil fuel consumption that can't be done more cheaply and efficiently with newer technology.

Unfortunately, the huge technological lead we had on the rest of the world has vanished, due to Republicans' slavish devotion to the fossil fuel industry and their active sabotage of efforts to make us less dependent on them. 

Tom's statement about the future is absolutely hilarious. Fifty years is an eternity for technological development in today's world. You're only going to see internal combustion engines in museums and old movies.

I feel compelled to school Tom that those refineries aren't being shut down by the Evil Deep State. They're being closed by their OWNERS, who have decided that it would be too expensive to modernize them. If they were willing to perform the needed upgrades, California would have no problems at all with them remaining.

Of course we won't "run out"--but the process of extraction will grow progressively more difficult and expensive--as it continually has since 1900. Long before our stores are completely depleted, they'll become not worth yanking out of the ground.

As the costs of extraction, processing, and transport escalate--as they must--the more modern alternatives of energy production will become more and more attractive. Eventually, only a fool will invest in fossil fuel infrastructure. That time is, to some extent, already here.

The death knell for the fossil fuel industry came when--I think it was in 2022--a kwh of solar power became cheaper than a kwh of fossil fuel generated power. And while fracking, etc. has opened up new supplies, ya still gotta yank it out, load it onto tank cars, transport it, refine it, burn it...it's just a horribly inefficient way to produce energy.

We can do much better.

I think the bellwether is the great MAGA state of Texas, which despite the political bent of its masters, leads the nation in sustainable energy production. Lots of mostly flat, desolate land not good for anything else. Solar and wind are obvious choices.

In my neck of the woods, we have hydro...which is one of the benefits of living somewhere where rain actually falls. The infrastructure investment was monumental, but we got lucky in that FDR's make-work policies and the phantom Japanese "threat" against the mostly un-electrified PNW spurred massive investment. So we don't have to drag fossil fuels up here and burn them.

Liberals believe that fossil fuels are only used for gas for cars and electricity.

However it is used much more that that.  Some quick examples are plastic and steel

Here is a list of almost 400 products that are made from fossil fuels.  We are nowhere near eliminating the use of fossil fuels.

https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2019/11/f68/Products%20Made%20From%20Oil%20and%20Natural%20Gas%20Infographic.pdf

 The attempt by the corrupt DemocRAT Biden administration to placate the radical left by eliminating fossil fuel production set America back years and damn near bankrupted many business because of the increase in cost of gas and energy, and ended up costing every American at the gas pump, for electricity and for the cost of goods that were made/derived from the oil industry. The "Green New Scam" literally set up America to fail financially. This is just another example of how much the DemocRATs hate America and Americans.

No one thinks, or has said, that fossil fuels won't still have other uses. You sure LUVVVV to put words in other people's mouths and then argue against them. That's called a "straw man," and it's weak, little Tom.

Weak.