Gov. Gavin Newsom has spent years making it harder to produce oil in his state, and Californians are picking up the tab in the form of America’s highest gasoline prices.
asserted
Californians → spend → prices
Now a Kern County judge has delivered a rebuke to one of his administration’s most brazen anti-energy schemes: It secretly imposed a statewide fracking ban, denied its existence for years, then invoked environmental justifications contradicted by its own earlier findings.
asserted
It → deliver → findings
In an Oct. 8 tentative ruling, Superior Court Judge Bernard Barmann Jr. invalidated both the administration’s secret prohibition on fracking, imposed in 2021, and the formal regulation adopted in 2024.
asserted
Jr. → invalidate → 2024
The story begins in 2019, when Newsom told disappointed supporters that he lacked authority to impose a fracking moratorium.
asserted
he → begin → moratorium
“You can’t do that unilaterally,” he said.
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he → do → that
The governor of California cannot do that.”
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governor → do → that
Apparently, he reconsidered.
asserted
he → reconsider → ?
In 2021, after legislation to ban fracking failed in a Democrat-controlled Senate committee, Newsom’s office quietly directed the California Geologic Energy Management Division, or CalGEM, to stop approving well-stimulation permits.
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office → ban → permits
But getting his regulators to carry out his order was another matter.
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regulators → get → order
In 2019, Newsom fired state oil and gas supervisor Ken Harris amid complaints that his agency had approved too many fracking permits.
asserted
agency → fire → permits
Harris’ replacement, Uduak-Joe Ntuk, continued evaluating applications, approving 83 well-stimulation permits in 2020 while denying 57.
asserted
replacement → continue → 57
Even after Newsom announced plans to ban fracking, Ntuk’s agency approved another 12 permits in 2021.
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agency → announce → 2021
That changed in July 2021, when CalGEM began categorically denying applications rather than evaluating each on its merits.
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CalGEM → change → merits
Ntuk departed in 2023 and alleged that the Newsom administration had forced him out.
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administration → depart → him
In his whistleblower lawsuit, he said he would have approved most of the fracking applications but for direction originating with the governor’s office.
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he → say → office
He claimed the administration had forced him out for resisting the governor’s order on fracking and other state regulations limiting oil recovery.
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administration → claim → recovery
His lawsuit was dismissed, and he has appealed.
asserted
he → dismiss → ?
Chevron and Aera Energy filed suit in Kern County Superior Court in March 2022, challenging CalGEM’s rejection of their well-stimulation applications.
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Chevron → file → applications
According to Chevron and Aera Energy’s suit, the agency had stopped making the legally mandated review of individual applications, instead relying on an unlawful blanket protection.
uncertain
agency → accord → protection
This was imposed without the public rulemaking process demanded by the state’s Administrative Procedure Act.
asserted
This → impose → Act
For two years, the administration denied the existence of any such prohibition.
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administration → deny → prohibition
Its lawyers asserted that allegations of a ban were “hyperbole and speculation.”
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allegations → assert → ban
An extraordinary admission followed.
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admission → follow → ?
In October 2024, CalGEM admitted that it had imposed a shadow ban to avoid the legally required rulemaking process.
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it → admit → process
Judge Barmann found that the explanations given to applicants weren’t the actual basis for rejecting their permits.
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explanations → find → permits
As grounds for denying individual applications, the administration had invoked climate change and public health.
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administration → deny → change
At the same time, the decision was to deny all applications, regardless of their merits.
asserted
decision → deny → merits
As Barmann concluded, the permit denials were “arbitrary and unsupported” because they rested on a climate-change rationale that wasn’t the actual basis for the ban.
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that → conclude → ban
The administration’s subsequent attempt to legalize its prohibition proved little more defensible.
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attempt → legalize → prohibition
In 2024, CalGEM formally banned well stimulation, claiming the measure was necessary to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
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measure → ban → emissions
For Newsom, its conclusions would prove inconvenient.
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conclusions → prove → Newsom
A statewide moratorium would reduce oil production in California, the agency determined, but it wouldn’t eliminate Californians’ need for petroleum in the first place.
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it → reduce → place
Instead, the state would need to buy more oil from foreign producers and out-of-state suppliers — and many of these imported oil came from countries or states that much less stringent environmental controls.
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many → need → controls
One scenario modeled by the report suggested that roughly 57 million barrels would have to be replaced every year.
uncertain
barrels → model → report
Much of that oil would have to be transported by tankers or rail, adding further costs and environmental impacts to those associated with extraction elsewhere.
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Much → have → extraction
Unlike an oil-industry study that Newsom’s regulators could dismiss, this was the state government’s own environmental analysis.
uncertain
this → dismiss → that
As Judge Barmann put it, CalGEM’s determination that a categorical ban was reasonably necessary to reduce greenhouse gases “is not supported by substantial evidence and lacks a rational connection to that purpose.”
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ban → put → purpose
He therefore vacated the regulation.
asserted
He → vacate → regulation
Toward the end of September, as gasoline prices skyrocketed, Newsom temporarily suspended California’s summer-blend gas requirement, allowing the cheaper winter blend to enter the market early.
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blend → skyrocket → market
His administration touted the decision as relief — a welcome reprieve from President Trump’s gasoline-price crisis.
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administration → tout → crisis
…and 6 more, not listed.
The Aporia
