So I had some interesting conversations over the last few days about the future of the oil industry in California and I wanted to highlight one key fact for California policymakers:

The sustainability question for California oil industry has not that much to do with California policy and much more to do with California geology and the global price of oil. Since August 2014, when production was about 18k barrels/month, production has fallen to ~12k b/mo.

The recent declines in oil prices, from the post-shale revolution mid 50s to the low 40s will accelerate this trend. Possibly dramatically. If it continues for even 4 years (the terms of recently elected state Senators), the oil industry in California as we know it is gone.

We need to be urgently asking questions about how to replace this economic activity in places like Kern County. We should not allow spinoffs and serial bankruptcies to land CA with 1000s (more) orphaned wells and former employees with broken pension and healthcare promises.

There simply is no responsible alternative to thinking beyond the oil industry in California. This is not about greens vs oil. It's about stewarding a transition for communities whose welfare has been intertwined with this industry for more than a century.