Is Gavin Newsom destroying California Energy on purpose? - You have to really wonder why California has gone from an energy-independent state to one of the absolute problems for the Trump Administration.
Energy Dominance for the White House is not possible with Gavin Newsom’s energy policies closing another 20% of the refining capacity of California, and their importing 70% of their oil from foreign sources.
We cover how the Trump Administration has several options and the potential fallout.
Daily Standup Top Stories
Can President Trump Take Control of the California Refineries to Stop a National Security Crisis?
What would the policial fall out be?
Trump’s Push for New Oil and Gas Leases on Federal Lands: Implications for Investors, the U.S. Economy, and Alaska
President Donald Trump has signaled a bold agenda to expand oil and gas leasing on federal lands, a move that could reshape America’s energy landscape. This policy shift, aimed at bolstering domestic energy production, has […]
First U.S. Rare Earth Mine in 70 Years Opens with Chris Wright On Site: A Game-Changer for Investors and Mining Technology
On July 11, 2025, a historic milestone was marked in Ranchester, Wyoming, as the Brook Mine, operated by Ramaco Resources, Inc., became the first U.S. rare earth mine to open in over 70 years. U.S. […]
Europe Says They Won’t Need Russian Gas in the Future, But Do They?
In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the European Union has aggressively pursued energy independence, vowing to eliminate its reliance on Russian natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG). EU officials, including […]
United States Oil Rigs Continue Downward Trend Amid Price Uncertainty
The U.S. oil and gas industry is witnessing a persistent decline in active drilling rigs, reflecting ongoing market uncertainties and volatile oil prices. According to the latest data from Baker Hughes, the total number of […]
Highlights of the Podcast
00:00 – Intro
00:15 – Can President Trump Take Control of the California Refineries to Stop a National Security Crisis?
03:50 – Trump’s Push for New Oil and Gas Leases on Federal Lands: Implications for Investors, the U.S. Economy, and Alaska
06:02 – First U.S. Rare Earth Mine in 70 Years Opens with Chris Wright On Site: A Game-Changer for Investors and Mining Technology
07:46 – Europe Says They Won’t Need Russian Gas in the Future, But Do They?
13:18 – Markets Update
18:31 – United States Oil Rigs Continue Downward Trend Amid Price Uncertainty
19:01 – Frac Count Update
20:03 – Outro
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Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.
Michael Tanner: [00:00:00] Can President Trump take control of California’s oil refineries? Next on the Energy Newsbeat Daily Standup. [00:00:06][6.6]
Stuart Turley: [00:00:15] Can president Trump take control of the California refineries to stop a national security crisis? What would the political fallout be? Michael, this is absolutely critical in the face of establishing energy challenges, California finds itself at a crossroads, the planned closure of two major oil refinerries, Phillips 66, Wilmington facility, and Valero’s a Balencia plant threatens to slash the refining capacity by 17%. Michael, last week we had about 12 stories. In the last two weeks, we’ve had 12 stories on California. This is critical. So I finally had to ask, can he take control of these refineries? In the War Powers Act Resolution of 1973, often cited for discussions of presidential authority, says, yeah, he probably can. But what political fallout is going to happen? I have a second question, and that is, how come… California is importing 70% of their crude oil when they used to import it all from Alaska. Why don’t we do that again? That sounds like it’s really kind of pretty simple fix. [00:01:27][72.6]
Michael Tanner: [00:01:28] No, this is a great overview. We actually ran this on the Energy Newsbeat sub stack. So shout out to everybody. Go please subscribe there. I mean, it’s really interesting. As you mentioned in this article, you did a deep dive on this with, with good friend of the show, Mike Umbro and another good friend of the show Doomberg, which is coming out this Friday. So everyone be ready to recommend there. I mean this also has a lot to do with what what we saw on another substack that we love to read, which is the crude truth about specifically Hawaii and the fact that the Jones Act requires them to import most of their crude from Iraq. A lot of that happens with California. If you don’t have any pipelines going into the state, well guess what? Now you have to bring it around with a tanker. Well guess what, if you are importing American crude via sea, it must come from an American ship. It’s probably one of the most antiquated laws in the entire country. I think, personally, I think the Jones Act… Is encapsulates the idiotic old school regulatory framework and the ineptitude of our government because all 100 senators and all 450 odd congressmen and women should theoretically in a swoop of a button and a click be able to get rid of that and it’s unbelievable but you absolutely are i think spot on i think the political fallout from specifically you know taking over these refiners is a little bit. Too much to handle. Specifically that Phillips 66 Wilmington refiner does about 139,000 barrels per day and Valero’s facility is about 145,000. That’s a pretty significant chunk of California’s overall state capacity. We’ve also seen other shutdowns as you pointed out of the Phillips a Rodeo refinery and Marathons Martinez plants. [00:03:17][109.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:03:18] Here’s what’s really weird, Michael, is that there are refineries with pipelines directly to the, there’s 30 some odd bases, military bases, and they have pipelines straight to the military bases. So I’m going to guess if president Trump is kind of watching this and I know secretary right is all over this, but it’s going to be fun to see if secretary right hands him a executive order going. We now have control over the refineries. It’s what it’s going to take. Cause governor Newsom is running them out of town. Let’s go to the next story here. Trump’s push for new oil and gas leases on federal lands, implications for investors, the U S economy in Alaska. I love me a good Alaska story. The administration strategy includes streamlining permit processes and reducing environmental regulations and offering new lease sales in Alaska, the Gulf of America and other federal territories. This is huge. It’s the Alaska is the epicenter, epicenter I can’t even say that. I went to Oklahoma state. I got my Oklahoma state shirt on and they don’t teach how to say epicenter in, in, and the college. [00:04:29][70.9]
Michael Tanner: [00:04:29] There. Let me say it for the let me say for the audience, Epicenter. [00:04:32][2.7]
Stuart Turley: [00:04:32] Yeah. Anyway, the bottom line that Trump’s determination to open new oil and gas leases on federal lands is extremely bullish for domestic energy production. But I want to harp on this is that why aren’t we pumping up Alaskan oil and gas? And I have a very close relationship with Alaska. We need to pump Alaskan oil and not buy rush [00:04:59][26.9]
Michael Tanner: [00:05:00] Absolutely, I think, as you rightfully pointed out, Trump’s unleashing Alaskan energy is, I think critical from… If he really wants to increase the supply of oil, there’s a huge amount of oil up there. You put a great, great picture in this article, so I highly recommend everybody check it out. I mean, so much potential there in Alaska. I think the thing that Alaska has to deal with is where do you send it? [00:05:27][27.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:05:28] Well, yes, they have the pipelines. And so you’ve got big contracts, but the Aliaska pipeline was due to retire, I believe, two years ago. And it’s only at about 21% being optimized right now. If it goes below another 5%, they have to shut it down because it takes a certain amount of flow in order to run that Aliaski pipeline been there. Seeing it worked with those folks. Oh, by the way, here’s the book that proves that my granddad was the chief geologist for the North slope. So yes, I have a very close relationship with Alaska. Let’s go to the next story here. First. U.S. Rare earth mine in 70 years opens with Chris Wright onsite at game changers for investing in mining technology. I love me a Alaska story followed by a Chris Wright story. You can’t buy this kind of entertainment, Michael. When you have investors, the opening of a Brook mine signals a rare opportunity poised for growth. Michael, this is critical. Because these new mines are looking at actually coal ash. They have discovered all of the rare earth minerals are in coal ash, which means it’s cheaper to get to production. And I’ve seen Chris Wright this past week being interviewed about four or five different times, and he says, we are getting to ore processing as quick as we possibly can. And by focusing on recycling coal ash, as in this mind, this is [00:07:06][97.7]
Michael Tanner: [00:07:07] huge. Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, it’s this brings up a very, I mean, Ramico Resources has been around for a while. They’re originally, as you said, a coal operator now repurposing in order to kind of market themselves as a leader in rare earth minerals. And if we are going to become self-sufficient as a clean energy society. This is stuff that we need. You need this type of rare earth minerals because it’s exactly what we can eat. And the fact that it’s being repurposed from coal, which we have a huge abundance of, is even better. [00:07:40][32.8]
Stuart Turley: [00:07:41] Oh, absolutely. So always love me a good Chris Wright story, the right man for the right job. Let’s go to the next story here. Europe says they won’t need Russian natural gas in the future, but do they? Michael, there’s a couple of big wrecking balls there. I had to put that wrecking in there just to make sure we’re not being thrown off the air. But in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the European union aggressively pursued energy independence, vowing to eliminate its reliance on Russian natural gas. But when I started taking a look at this The United States, 45% of LNG imports is now coming from the U S Norway, which Michael, you and I talked about this three years ago, Norway was shutting down all of their natural gas because of the green energy policies. They’re now 30 to 40% of the total gas supply. Russia is still doing 19% out of the Arctic LNG. Decline Bose band, but record LNG sales in early 2025. Cutter is rolling right on in there. It’s pretty funny when you start realizing where the energy hypocrisy is sitting in the EU. [00:08:54][73.7]
Michael Tanner: [00:08:55] Yeah, it boggles my mind every time I learn something more about the EU energy policy. It goes, how stupid can they be? And guess what? They keep getting stupider and stupier every time. It’s pretty unbelievable. I mean and the fact that they’re you know, they’re This ban, I love how you said this paragraph here, this ban critics argue could amount to a quote, the industrial campaign by inflating energy costs. Well, what do you think’s been happening over the past, since COVID really? And here’s this stat you threw in here. Since 2022, replacing Russian gas has cost the EU an extra $544 billion in imports alone with the total economic losses exceeding 1.3 tri-tri-tru-trillion, which is 2.4% of GDP over three years. Holy smokes, that’s a lot of green. [00:09:51][55.7]
Stuart Turley: [00:09:51] It’s a lot of green. And let me put this last little bit in here. This article has not asked the question, why did Russia invade Ukraine until the EU takes ownership of this question with NATO adding countries that were to counter a Reagan and Gorbachev agreement for no more NATO countries. They will not learn anything. In my opinion, they’re setting themselves up for a horrible fiscal Collapse. Should NATO in the EU fail as organizations? I see that as a potential. And there’s a post in here that I put in there from Che Bowles. If you watch that video, Michael, it shows the expansion of NATO and nobody’s talking about that. It has expanded to Russia. Russia has not expanded to NATO. [00:10:45][53.9]
Michael Tanner: [00:10:46] No, absolutely. Well, so with that off to you, man. Yeah, let’s go ahead and jump over and cover some stuff that’s happened in the oil and gas markets. But before we do that, let us quickly pay the bills. As always, energy newsbeat.com is where we get all of the stories from. Go ahead and check it out there. Hit the links and time stamps in the description below so you can follow along. Highly recommend subscribing to our sub stack. The energy news beat dot sub stack dot com. The best place. In order to stay up to speed with our thoughts on a daily basis. While energynewsbeat.com runs all of our stories, our Substack runs our analysis of all the stories. Stu does an excellent job of sensitizing the top mood and feel of the day and putting it into a very digestible newsletter. Highly recommend following us, theenergynewsbeat.substack.com. Also, thank you to supporters of the show, Reese Energy Consulting. Shout out to everybody. Over at Reese Energy Consulting. We really appreciate their support guys. If you deal with mid, you know, if you’re in the oil and gas space, you deal with midstream, whether you’re an upstream company and you have a first purchaser or a gas offtaker who is charging you too much, whether you’re the midstream space and you need a second opinion on an investment opportunity, whether your sourcing any type of crude oil or jet fuel and you need somebody to broker that contract. Whether you’re working overseas and you need a team here in the United States to help with potential investments in the united states Reese Energy Consulting has you covered they have clients ranging from two guys in a garage with a harebrained idea to change the midstream game all the way up to the largest publicly traded companies in the world and everything in between so if you’re wondering if you were a right fit for them you are you don’t even have to think twice go ahead reeseenergyconsulting.com Tell them that energy news beat sent you. And they will very much appreciate that guys. And finally, if you are a high net worth W2 individual in New York or California, especially in New york, you’re about to get Mondami’d here coming up here the next couple, couple months, go check out our oil and gas portfolio survey. It is oil and gasses. One of the most tax-efficient ways to invest and actually make a return. It’s not like terrible deductions where you just, oh, we’re gonna be nice and send, I mean, we are all about charity here, don’t get me wrong, but if you’re looking for a tax- efficient investment vehicle that can actually generate an ROI, oil and gas, look no further. We have a great oil and gasoline portfolio survey, investinoil.energynewsbeat.com. Fill it out if you are a good fit. We will get you some information and possibly point you in a direction to solve that tax problem. Again, if you are in New York or California, you are about to get mandamied. Check it out. Invest in oil dot energy newsbeat dot com. [00:13:38][172.5]
Michael Tanner: [00:13:38] But Stu, let’s go ahead and just look at top line indices on Friday. S and P and NASDAQ were basically flat down about three tenths of a percentage point. So not much there. Two and 10 year yields actually jumped a little bit. 10 year spread was actually about 1%. I was up about half a percentage point on the two year. And 1.5 on the 10 year. So about a 1% Delta there, 10 year yields. I’m outpacing two years. Dollar index up about three tenths of a percentage point. Bitcoin on a tear up over 118,000 dollars or up 1.8 percentage point is unbelievable what’s going on with Bitcoin, Stu. Crude oil jumped to 68.45 that’s up $2 or 2.82 percentage points or basically about $2 day over day brent jumped to 70.51 good to see a little 70 handle on brent that was up about three tenths of a percentage point natural gas still down a little bit three dollars and 31 cents getting a lot of text in my thread hey what’s going on with natural gas i i wish i knew guys i wish i knew what was going on With natural gas from xop which is our emp securities etf jumped five tenths of a percentage point up to 133.07. I mean, so Again, I’ve been getting this question, I got multiple people over the last week reaching out saying, what is going on with natural gas? I don’t actually know. I think there’s some really interesting stuff going on and we’ll cover that in a show down the line. I want to kind of get some, do a little bit more deep dive into there and maybe that’s going to be a great sub stack article for us. But- Speaking on oil prices, we saw them rise, like I mentioned, over 2%, mainly because our favorite international energy agency said that it does look like supply is tightening a little bit from that standpoint. And it also appears that Trump is poised to announce some new sanctions on Russia that if you follow the show and listen to what Stu and I have to say, well, mainly Stu, you know that those sanctions aren’t actually going to work. We also did see the IEA set a bunch of different things in their release. They also did sort of show that, yes, there is some short-term market tightness. They also do boost their forecast for supply growth this year while trimming their outlook for growth and demand, which goes to show that we’re still in this market surplus. And, you know, I’m not a huge IEF fan. I think they’ve, they waver on the political side more than they do the fact side, but when, but, but this analysis here, I can’t disagree with because… Again, global inventories are still at an all-time high. Demand, depending on how you view what tariffs will do, is going to stunt demand. I mean, we’re always in a slightly demand growth phase. I mean that’s the thing. It’s like spending. Spending in the United States is always going up. So can we curb? The amount of spending increased. That’s what everyone talks about. Not that we’re gonna stop spending more money year over year. It’s can we stop spending the incremental dollar. It’s almost like acceleration. You can be accelerating slower than you were last second and still be gaining speed. It’s basically, it’s physics, folks. So point of the matter is. I tend to agree with this analysis. We still are in a market surplus. Now, I think what we’re seeing in this short-term price is a little bit of this weakness. But again, also, I think there’s some uncertainty about what’s going to happen with a lot of this stuff. We also did see OPEC cut its forecast for global oil demand from 2026 to 2029, which is really interesting, actually, because I think OPECs has it. I mean, to be honest, OPECS, it’s in their nature a little it to be accurate because that’s what their job is. So. When they’re telling you global oil demand might drop, that’s very interesting. And they mainly peg slowing Chinese demand, which they announced in their 2025 world oil outlook, which was published last Thursday. Saudi rib is energy minister. Also came out on Friday and said that they have, they have been fully compliant with the voluntary OPEC plus target output. Super interesting. I, again, Trump has mentioned to multiple news outlets that he’s going to make a major statement on Russia on Monday. What do you think that statement’s going to be, Stu? [00:17:34][235.8]
Stuart Turley: [00:17:35] Well, I put in an article out there saying that if it is secondary sanctions, that if they go after the refineries in India, as well as China, it would be absolutely horrific. And a disaster for the Trump administration. I think that I’m curious if he puts in the bill as Lindsey Warmonger Graham has got in there, I think it’s a gigantic mistake. Do it, this is gonna be the Jim Cramer effect. Anything that Jim Crammer or Lindsey Graham tell you to do, don’t do, do the opposite. [00:18:14][39.8]
Michael Tanner: [00:18:15] Shocker, Lindsey Graham is not. [00:18:17][2.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:18:19] You have a Democrat Blumenthal and a warmonger telling President Trump that he needs to do this. So this big, new, shocking thing is going to be absolutely a disaster if he doesn’t. [00:18:30][11.5]
Michael Tanner: [00:18:31] Yeah, real quick. We did see rig counts drop on Friday. We saw what’s the number here. It was down by two. So, you know, somewhat flat, not the greatest from a rig count standpoint. But again, it goes to show you that the oil industry is not going to continue to drill at these prices. Now, I mean, at $70 oil, you might be able to make some things make sense. Some people might think you need to just drill through this low price environment. I don’t know if I necessarily agree with that, but I think you have to look at it on an individual basis. We also did see the frac count spread drop on Friday. Frac counts was actually up by four, very interesting. So we see rig counts drop, but we see frac rate, frac, count increase, which, you know, maybe goes to show that a lot of the ducks that have been sitting out there are maybe because the prices to frac have dropped so much, it might make sense for some of these companies to come in, drill out some of these ducks and, you now, see what they can do. So very fascinating there, Stu. All right, my favorite time of the week. What are you worried about this week? [00:19:28][57.3]
Stuart Turley: [00:19:28] I’m worried about our beloved President Trump. If he does something stupid, you know, A, he still has to get some foreign policy folks in there that understand what’s going on. And I truly do not think sanctions work as intended as Irina Slav has always been very accurate about. And I think he’s going to listen to some warmongers just because he’s frustrated that president Putin is not at the ending the war yet. And I, I think it’s a something to really know. Of course we’re within 24 hours of knowing this, so we’ll find out. [00:20:02][33.2]
Michael Tanner: [00:20:02] Yes, we will know. So with that, guys, we’re going to go and let you get out of here. Start your week. Thank you for starting it with Energy Newsbeat for Stuart Turley. I’m Michael Tanner. We’ll see you tomorrow, folks. [00:20:02][0.0][1182.1]
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