Governor Gavin Newsom’s clean energy pact is getting torched as just another failure when it comes to California policy that has already driven serious business out of the state.
The memorandum of understanding, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom and U.K. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband Monday, pledges collaboration to tackle climate change and invests nearly a billion dollars in California projects focused on clean tech from UK’s leading energy company, Octopus.
“What a genius idea that is, the UK with the highest electricity prices pretty much in the world teaming up with California the highest electricity prices anywhere in America apart from Hawaii to do more of the insanity of offshore wind that is planned already to destroy our beautiful coastline in California,” Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton said in a video posted to social media.
Hilton also criticized the Democratic presidential hopeful for “spewing out carbon emissions,” while touting clean energy policies.
“We are so sick of Newsom endlessly flying around the world lecturing everyone about climate change while spewing out carbon emissions, all while his insane climate policies give us the highest gas prices in America and the highest electric bills after Hawaii,” Hilton told The California Post.
When asked for for a comment, Izzy Gardon, director of communications for Newsom, simply replied, “Who is Steve Hilton?”
Dr. Wayne Winegarden, a senior research fellow at the Pacific Research Institute, applauded the goal of reaching net-zero admissions, but underscored that it has to come without raising prices — a formula, California seems to have yet to figure out.
“Over the last eight years it has definitely gotten worse,” Winegarden said, pointing to the weight of regulations driving refineries out the state, including low carbon fuel standards and inventory requirements.
Valero’s refinery in Benicia is phasing out operations and will close in early 2026, while Phillips 66 shuttered its fuel production in 2025. The two closures leave 8 operating oil refineries that produce transportation fuel in a state the consumes the most behind Texas, according to the California Air Resources Board.
In light of Valero’s announcement to close its doors in Northern California, Newsom highlighted several laws he signed to combat rising fuel prices, including efforts to boost oil production in Kern County, as well as granting the California Energy Commission (CEC) regulatory and data transparency tools to ensure a stable, affordable fuel supply during the state’s transition away from petroleum-based transportation.
“While others point fingers to spread fear and divide us, California is doing the actual work—collaborating with industry, using data and transparency to protect consumers, and building the all-of-the-above energy future America needs,” Newsom said in a statement back in early January.
But, a new report from Bloomberg News shows California is increasingly shipping more foreign oil from the Bahamas as gas prices rise.
More than 40% of the gasoline California imported in November was routed through the Caribbean hub, a record high which comes as drivers in the state are paying an average of $4.58 per gallon, the most in the country, according to the outlet.
While Winegarden sees the value in clean energy, he noted the “lack of stability” as a major concern.
“When the conditions are right we have been getting significant power from alternative energy, but when the conditions are wrong, we have lack of stability,” Winegarden told the Post. “What we keep seeing is prices keep going up relative to the rest of the country.”
Winegarden added that California has prioritized becoming net-zero over “key aspects of affordability and reliability,” when the state should focus more on the technology that exists today — like utilizing natural gas in the interim to lower emissions.
“If we could use that, even over 10, 20, 30 years, but we keep getting emissions down, that’s an important step,” Winegarden said. “We rely on more of what we want to be true or even what we think could possibly be true in a few years rather than what’s true today.”
A sentiment echoed by Tom Manzo, founder of the California Business & Industrial Alliance, or CABIA, who blamed Newsom’s “overregulation and anti-business business climate” for driving up energy costs and pushing out businesses.
“The clean energy dream — you know, we have the highest prices in the nation because they chased out the refiners,” Manzo said. “Look at the solar electric, the biggest farm, you know, $2.2 billion in the Mohave Desert and they’re closing that because it was producing only 75% of its capacity.”
Manzo also called out Newsom for spending time abroad, rather than in the state he represents.
“You’re not helping the state of California by going and making some made up deal with with somebody from from the United Kingdom,” he said.
