Another massive business has decided that California’s burdensome regulations are simply too much to shoulder. Chevron is leaving the state and heading to Texas, like so many other California businesses. The Wall Street Journal editorial board explains:
Congratulations to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is succeeding at his goal of driving away fossil fuel investment and jobs, even while failing to reduce global CO2 emissions. See Chevron’s announcement Tuesday that it is writing down its upstream assets in the Golden State owing to “continuing regulatory challenges.”
Chevron’s write-down acknowledges what the company has been telling California lawmakers for some time: Their energy policies are making the state uninvestable. These include the state cap-and-trade program, low-carbon fuel standard, penalty on “excessive” refiner margins, and a 2022 law limiting new drilling within 3,200 feet of homes and schools.
California policies have made it “riskier than investing in other states, with projects being lower in quality and higher in cost,” Chevron’s Americas Products business president Andy Walz wrote last month in a filing with the California Energy Commission. “Chevron alone has reduced spending in California by hundreds of millions of dollars since 2022.”
“We have rejected capital projects” and canceled some “due to permitting challenges,” Mr. Walz noted, adding that California’s “arbitrary attacks on a disfavored industry . . . signal to every industry, entrepreneur, manufacturer, and employer that California is closed for business.”
They’ve gotten that signal. Employment in California has declined by 77,700 over the last year.
Action Line: Money goes where it’s best treated. States should remember that they have competition when it comes to where both the residents and businesses decide to locate themselves. California’s Governor Newsom is learning that lesson the hard way. If you’re looking for a better America for your family or your business, click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, and be among the first to read my upcoming 2024 Super States rankings.
