California’s energy strategy ignores reality and gets the basic energy principles of reliability and resilience wrong.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s targets—100% “clean” electricity by 2045 and the (currently stalled) ban on selling new internal-combustion-engine cars and trucks after 2035—treat the distinction between electricity and other forms of energy as a detail green policies can easily overcome.

However, wind turbines and solar panels only generate intermittent electricity. They do not produce the jet fuel that keeps military and commercial aircraft flying, the diesel that moves freight and construction equipment, the gasoline and diesel that power the state’s tens of millions of internal-combustion vehicles, or the bunker fuel used by ships calling at the state’s major ports.

The state’s own refining and supply situation shows why the governor’s policies are more fantasy than reality. The state functions as an energy island. The Sierra Nevada blocks pipeline connections to the rest of the country, making large-scale shipments of refined products from Gulf Coast refineries effectively impossible. Despite this geography, California’s economy—the fourth-largest in the world—still demands roughly 58 million gallons of transportation fuel every day.

That transportation fuel demand total breaks down as:

• 37 million gallons of gasoline for more than 36 million vehicles.
• 11 million gallons of jet fuel for the state’s major military installations and international airports.
• 10 million gallons of diesel for trucking and construction.

In addition, ships calling at the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland require about 5.2 million metric tons of bunker fuel annually. The Port of Los Angeles alone saw almost 1,900 vessel arrivals in 2025; Long Beach handled over 10 million container units; Oakland adds further significant cargo and cruise traffic.

But planes, ships, trucks, and cars do not run on raw crude oil. They run on fuels that are refined from crude oil and are produced by the nation’s refineries. Those refineries also turn crude oil into thousands of other essential products demanded and purchased in the Golden State (and around the nation).

Yet policies such as California’s low-carbon fuel standard are forcing refineries like the Martinez and Rodeo facilities to shift to biofuel production. Phillips 66 ended operations at its Los Angeles complex in late 2025, and Valero idled its Benicia refinery in 2026. These closures and conversions have reduced the state’s refining capacity by almost 20% in roughly the past year.

California only has seven remaining refineries. With Phillips 66 Rodeo now a Renewable Energy Complex, only six are processing crude oil.

Southern California: (South Coast Air Quality Management District) 

• Marathon Petroleum (Los Angeles)
• Chevron (El Segundo)
• PBF Energy (Torrance)
• Valero (Wilmington)

Northern California: (Bay Area Air Quality Management District)

• Chevron (Richmond)
• PBF Energy (Martinez)

California’s remaining refineries that process crude oil lack the capacity to produce the 58 million gallons of transportation fuel demanded daily. Compounding the problem, other operators have warned that the regulatory climate makes additional refinery closures likely.

Human lives improve with expanded access to affordable, reliable electricity and liquid fuels. But California’s policy approach takes a contradictory path. The state is forcing refinery closures while also mandating reliance on weather-dependent electricity, which forces the state’s utilities to build expensive backup generation, storage, and transmission.

California’s modern economy depends on the refined products made from oil—the very products that intermittent electricity sources cannot produce. But demanding a continuous supply of reliable, affordable energy while imposing regulatory conditions that make continuous service impossible ignores reality.

Resilience is a system’s capacity to absorb a disruption and recover without prolonged shortages or extreme price swings.

California’s policies appear targeted to destroy that capacity. Reduced in-state refining forces greater reliance on imports and leaves the state strained for both fuel and electricity. Wartime losses of refining capacity elsewhere (including Russia and the Persian Gulf) add pressure and raise the risk of prolonged shortages, since building and repairing war-damaged refineries takes time and significant capital. California’s regulatory environment makes that kind of investment unlikely.

Military operations, commercial airports, freight movement, and port operations cannot pause for artificially inflated policy timelines or arbitrary green mandates; instead, they’ll look elsewhere. Rather than accepting the problem and fixing it, current policy is accelerating California’s loss of energy security.

Energy policy choices can be tested against a few basic principles: Can households and businesses afford the fuels and power they use? Can they expect energy supplies to be there when they need them? When a disruption occurs, does the system recover quickly without sustained damage to supply or prices? California’s current course is failing these simple tests.

So-called clean energy mandates can forcibly redirect investments in the energy sector, but they will not create the refining capacity or the transportation fuels the state’s economy requires. Policymakers’ refusal to balance the value of electricity generation and refined fuels has raised costs, tightened supply, and increased dependence on distant (and often unreliable) sources.

A workable energy policy starts by accepting that difference and protecting the capacity to meet actual demand. Instead, California’s trajectory ignores reality by actively damaging the reliability and resilience of its energy systems.

The people who want to stop AI data centers from being built in their backyards may wind up helping Musk put them over everyone's heads.

The post Breitbart Business Digest: Don’t Want AI in Your Backyard? Musk Will Put It in Orbit appeared first on Breitbart.

Over a hundred million dollars have flooded the Iowa Senate race from outside spenders. Instead of supporting the candidate they want to win, they are throwing money at opposing the one they want to lose.

Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson is going head-to-head with Democrat state Rep. Josh Turek to take retiring Republican Sen. Joni Ernst’s seat.

Less than two weeks from Election Day, the polls are still swinging and money is still coming in.

According to the Des Moines Register’s analysis of campaign finance data, outside groups have spent over $137 million on the open race. AdImpact has projected that total ad spending could reach $195 million by Election Day.

However, most of the money spent has been in opposition to either candidate rather than in support.

In total, $53.8 million has gone to oppose Turek, and $48.3 million has been spent to oppose Hinson.

According to RealClearPolitics polling, Hinson is leading by less than a point. The two have been swinging in the polls, trading a one- or two-point lead for the past few weeks. The most recent poll, conducted by Co/efficient this week, shows Hinson leading Turek by 3 points, at 48% to 45%.

Iowa’s Senate race could be the one to make or break the GOP’s effort to hold the majority in the 120th Congress.

The largest spender is the Senate Leadership Fund, led by Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune. The Senate Leadership Fund has spent over $35 million in Iowa in hopes of keeping the seat red.

Nearly all of it has been opposition spending directed at Turek. The group has pledged to reach $53 million in Iowa by Election Day, running TV and streaming ads, mail, text, and GOTV efforts urging Iowans to vote for Hinson.

“Ashley Hinson has a proven record of taking on big fights and delivering real results for Iowa’s farmers and working families,” Senate Leadership Fund Executive Director Alex Latcham said in a statement in June.

“Hinson’s opponent, Josh Turek, is a far-Left politician who is bankrolled by Chuck Schumer, and Iowans can no doubt count on Turek to repay that debt by rubber-stamping the Democrat Party’s radical agenda. Senate Leadership Fund is proud to support Iowa’s next U.S. Senator, Ashley Hinson, as she works to defeat Schumer’s hand-picked puppet in November,” Latcham’s statement continued.

America PAC, funded by tech billionaire and Republican supporter Elon Musk, has spent over $2 million on the race, again with nearly all of it opposing Turek. Musk has spent over $360 million on the midterm elections, backing Republicans.

According to Federal Election Commission reports, WinSenate, funded by Democratic Senate Majority PAC, is the largest spender against Hinson. As of Oct. 20, the group has spent $28.2 million against Hinson in Iowa, second only to its spending in Ohio. But it is speeding up its spending.

WinSenate has spent $170.7 million nationally, still behind the Senate Leadership Fund at $252.3 million. However, both groups are accelerating spending as the election draws closer.

VoteVets, a progressive group claiming to support veterans, came in third place, spending over $17.5 million. The group fairly evenly split its spending between opposing Hinson and supporting Turek.

The same can be said for Americans for Prosperity Action, a conservative group that has spent over $12 million supporting Hinson and opposing Turek.

Van Zandt County, Texas, Sheriff's Deputy Adam Sherifi was killed during a shootout while assisting the Canton Police Department in serving a felony warrant Tuesday night.

The post Say His Name: Deputy Adam Sherifi Killed in Line of Duty appeared first on Breitbart.

Data released by maritime tracking agency Kpler on Wednesday showed that oil exports have reached, and even surpassed, pre-war levels despite resurgent terror attacks by Iran on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.

The post Oil Flows Return to Pre-War Levels Despite Iran’s Resurgent Hormuz Terrorism appeared first on Breitbart.

Just days after President Donald Trump campaigned for Ohio candidates in the greater Cincinnati area, Vice President JD Vance returned to his home state of Ohio to campaign for Republicans once again and to address an ad about Amy Acton that has gone viral.

During a stop in Cincinnati on Wednesday, Vance campaigned for Eric Conroy, who is facing Democrat Rep. Greg Landsman in Ohio’s 1st Congressional District, and Sen. Jon Husted, who is running against Democrat Sherrod Brown in a special election.

He also campaigned for Vivek Ramaswamy, who is running for governor against Acton, Ohio’s former health department director.

But it was a campaign ad featuring Acton’s mom that drew considerable attention during the event. In the now-viral social media ad, Acton’s mom, Donna Arthur, calls her daughter a “liar” and says Acton never lived in a tent as a child, contrary to the candidate’s claim out on the campaign trail and in ads.

The ad has gained widespread media attention, both for the use of a family member in a negative campaign ad and because Acton and others say the former Ohio health director suffered childhood sexual abuse from her stepfather, and that she and her mother have been estranged for many years.

The Ramaswamy campaign released a statement on Tuesday calling Acton “a serial fabulist who has some serious problems with the truth.” The campaign has since confirmed that it was behind the ad, which cost $4 million.

Vance addressed the controversial ad in his speech, stating first that he has “watched the Democrats lie about [Ramaswamy’s] family” and “throw every dirty trick in the political book at Vivek.”

“The whole time, Vivek has stood tall, and he has talked about what he wants to accomplish for the people of Ohio, and now the media and the Democrats in the state of Ohio are obsessed because, guess what, Vivek Ramaswamy had the audacity to run a TV commercial, which calls it out like it is, and calls Amy Acton a liar,” the vice president said.

“And my message, ladies and gentlemen, is very simple: Whatever you think about any of the TV advertisements, focus on the substance, and focus on the facts,” Vance continued.

Vance brought up Acton’s record as the health director during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying she is the one “who tried to mask your children.”

“So, when she goes out there and pretends to be a reasonable moderate, or when she tries to make the campaign about TV commercials instead of about the people of Ohio, you remind Amy Acton that Ohio is about common sense, not far-left radicals,” he said.

The vice president then contrasted Ramaswamy and Acton, sharing that he’s never heard Ramaswamy complain about ads against him. “I have never once heard Vivek say anything except for his passion to serve the people of Ohio, and that’s what you want in a governor,” he said to applause from the crowd.

Vance added that he, along with many other Ohioans, was concerned about the long-term effect that school closures and forced masking had on Ohio children due to Acton’s directives.

“It was obvious that our kids were suffering learning disabilities, that their speech wasn’t developing the right way because of what we were doing with regards to COVID,” he said. “ … That’s the only time we have ever seen Amy Acton in action. That is what we know we are getting if we make the mistake of electing that woman to be the next governor of Ohio.”

He later criticized Acton for refusing to debate Ramaswamy, and he said she is “listening to the far-left bureaucrats, not to the parents who are raising the next generation of the state of Ohio.”

Vance also addressed Conroy running against Landsman, as well as Husted’s race against Brown, reminding the crowd how Trump has been particularly complimentary of Husted’s physique and skills as a football player.

The vice president also warned of Landsman and Brown’s liberal records, adding a personal touch as an Ohio native.

The vice president even turned a moment with a protester pretending to be a MAGA supporter into a lighthearted pitch against Democrats.

Vance and Trump have both appeared in key battleground states this week. The midterm election is on Nov. 3.

China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment said on Wednesday that it will send a delegation to the COP31 climate conference in Antalya, Turkey, in November to “actively promote the international climate negotiations.”

The post World’s Worst Polluter, China, Vows Strong Presence at U.N. Climate Alarmism Summit appeared first on Breitbart.

Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday he would accept a peace deal freezing the Ukraine war at current front lines.

The post Zelensky Says He Would Accept Deal to Freeze Ukraine War at Current Lines appeared first on Breitbart.

After nearly a decade in cartoon purgatory, “The Simpsons” is resurrecting Apu from the woke graveyard of canceled characters.

“The Simpsons” show, which—let’s be honest—should have been wound down about the time when those now reaching the legal drinking age were born, announced the Indian cartoon character’s return on X with a preview of a Halloween special episode.

Apu is now being voiced by Indian American Sunil Malhotra instead of Hank Azaria, because having the race of the voice actor match a cartoon character means more than anything to terminally race-conscious Hollywood.

I’m not exactly going to give the show producers kudos here. When the woke mob came, they caved. They let a non-issue turn into a big issue, were forced into an apology tour after doing nothing wrong, and then sealed the breach after nine years by hiring an Indian actor to dodge further controversy.

There was nothing “racist” about Apu. The only reason he was canceled is that a “comedian,” Hari Kondabolu, released a documentary, “The Problem with Apu,” in 2017, comparing the depiction of the character to minstrel shows in the early 20th century.

And in the late 2010s, accusations of racism, no matter how ridiculous or thin their justification, were taken as the most serious thing in the whole wide world. That reality only escalated in 2020, when all American history was deemed racist, when giant rocks—yes, rocks—were being removed from college campuses because of the ever-present hysteria.

Looking back, some of the cultural crusades of the Left in the last decade are almost hard to believe. But you had better believe they were real and at times deadly serious. Careers were destroyed. History was erased. America became a more ruthless, less tolerant place in the name of perpetuating “tolerance.”

The Great Awokening represented a totalitarian mindset, a mindset that elite Western institutions were ready, willing, and able to enforce.

Then something happened that they didn’t expect.

President Donald Trump was reelected. The political revolution they thought was complete and irreversible was revealed to be not nearly as all-encompassing as they once thought. It turns out that most Americans loathed what we were becoming.

And so, the great pullback began. Characters like Apu are being tweaked and gingerly trotted out again as if nothing happened, or at least nothing serious.

The furor of the time is now being laughed off as just a little temporary excess, “woke 1,” as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently called it.

Those who led and joined the Awokening want us to forget how bad it got and make us believe that it won’t happen again. Surely, it was just a bizarre, hazy dream after all. Much like the last two decades of “The Simpsons,” it never really happened, did it?

Most of all they want to create the fiction that it would have died down naturally, that they all saw the bitter fruits of excess and changed their minds.

Sure, some of what happened was just mindless herd mentality and opportunism.

But the ideology that drove the moblike excess didn’t just go away.

The true believers just lost the power to effectuate their demands. The clever ones rebranded.

The most important thing to remember is that the Great Awokening didn’t go away on its own. It was forcibly derailed by a political counterrevolution that culminated with Trump’s return to office.

That’s my take as we’ve now seen, even in left-wing circles, some canceled characters and historical figures get sheepishly brought back after they were previously obliterated by swarms of fanatical social justice warriors and cowardly institutional elites afraid to stand up against their insane demands.

Some of the canceled are being brought back, not because Hollywood lefties learned to temper themselves, but because it’s now safe to do so.

The spell was lifted by the weight of the American voter and a uniquely gifted American political figure who was able to resist the absurd impulses of the time.

Just as Ronald Reagan made being “liberal” uncool in the ‘80s, Trump made woke cringe in the 2020s.

Democrats now have to talk about “affordability” instead of defunding the police; Hollywood shows soften their preaching and trot out old, beloved characters to appease their shrinking audiences.

But the creed didn’t die. Cultural revolution is still lingering under the surface, waiting for political fortunes to change. Its adherents eagerly await going back to imposing their will on our society.

So, what we have is a temporary reprieve, a chance to decide if the madness that metastasized social liberalism and identitarianism brought us will remain a chapter in our history or a new normal. Will we refuse to go back to the insanity or forget it happened and give them license to return to the dark days of 2020?

That remains an open question.