What do you do when you have a significant government budget deficit? If you are a politician in Santa Barbara County or the governor of California, you double down on shutting off revenue flows.
Both the state of California and Santa Barbara County are facing significant budget shortfalls; according to the state Legislative Analyst’s Office, California “faces an almost $18 billion budget problem in 2026-27.” And the county administrator told the Board of Supervisors that “the county forecasts a $23 million deficit for 2026-27 if it wants to maintain the same level of services.”
Steve Frank of CA Political News and Views wrote, “Santa Barbara killed the oil industry. The supervisors killed well-paying jobs, tens of millions in tax revenues, forced many to go on unemployment and leave the state. Now, the chickens have come home to roost—killing jobs means the county has a major deficit. This was not a murder, the supervisors committed suicide on the county.”
Most of the revenue shortfall could be made up if the BOS would just let oil companies do what they have been doing for almost 100 years in this state; produce oil and pay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes.
But shortsighted politicians who subscribe to the theory that our state can do without fossil fuels continue their assault on the oil industry. Recent actions by both state and county elected officials and their appointees avoid thinking about ‘what happens next’ as they pursue their anti-oil agenda.
California has regulated fuel standards such that refiners must blend special blends of fuel that are only used in our state. They have also tightened the screws on the producers’ operations.
The result: Several major refiners are simply shutting down operations and moving out of the state, taking the special blending capabilities and tax revenue with them. Since there are no pipelines available to transfer the special blends back to California, what do you suppose will happen to the gas supply and the price at the pump? One will go down, the other will go up.
And who do you think will absorb the impact from higher prices and reduced supply? It won’t be the idle rich who pressure politicians to make these poorly thought-out decisions; it will be all the people who go to work every day trying to earn enough to pay for housing, food, and clothing for their kids.
But there is some hope. Recently, the Board of Supervisors denied Sable Offshore Corporation operating permits for oil-production facilities on the Gaviota Coast. This was a moot decision though because, according to Noozhawk, the U.S. Department of Transportation “decided on Wednesday [the day after this meeting] that two Santa Barbara County pipelines operated by Sable are interstate pipelines, removing them from state authority.” Investor’s Business Daily then reported that the Department of Transportation had given “approval to restart the pipeline.”
Then, right on cue, the Environmental Defense Center, according to a Noozhawk report, “has filed a lawsuit challenging the decision claiming that the agencies’ decision did not meet basic standards to grant the approval, and the pipelines still pose a risk to the Gaviota Coast.”
Noozhawk continues, “The agency granted the request in a letter that claimed that the emergency approval was granted because of ‘the acute energy shortage conditions identified in Executive Order 14156 within California and in the West Coast region of the United States.’”
So, how will politicians deal with the revenue loss from oil production and the loss of refining capability for the special blends of fuel only California demands? Ask one of the supervisors who have consistently supported killing the fossil fuel industry how “well-paying jobs” and the loss of tens of millions of dollars in tax revenues impact the ability to provide services to everyday taxpayers.
Even with the Sable decision, this still leaves almost all onshore oil production halted in our county. Shortsighted politicians and the Environmental Defense Center never consider the long-term impacts of their decisions.
Ron Fink writes to the Sun from Lompoc. Send a response for publication to letters@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in January 8 – January 15, 2026.