Continuing to cut oil and gas production faster than experts recommend – and before alternative energy sources can fill the gap – puts energy reliability and price stability at risk for the world’s fourth largest economy, warns a new TV ad from Californians for Energy Independence.

Pointing to facts and data from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the ad asks why California is shutting down local oil production four times faster than state agencies estimate for the energy transition.

After all:

“… that could mean eliminating local oil production while Californians still rely on oil and gas – and before we have the infrastructure in place to power our state with alternative energies.”

CARB’s 2022 Scoping Plan Update – the document that chart’s California’s path toward achieving carbon neutrality by 2045 – calls for the state to produce 97 million barrels of oil locally in 2045, eliminating the need for foreign energy imports.

At its current rate of decline, California will fall below 97 million barrels of in-state production by 2026 – a full 19 years ahead of schedule. Without a course correction, current policy will require the state to rely heavily on an expensive and unreliable foreign oil supply chain for basic energy needs.

As the ad warns, that could result in an unstable energy supply and even more volatile gas prices for Californians.

Fundamentally changing the systems by which California fuels transportation and produces electricity will take careful planning and execution over several decades. So far, Sacramento is blindly pushing the state beyond its energy realities – and families and businesses will suffer the consequences.