Dem Rep. Garamendi: CA Will Pushback on Energy, We Want to Take Several Refineries off of Oil

On Tuesday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central,” Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) predicted that there will be pushback from Democratic governors, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) against the Trump administration on energy and stated that California is “way, way out ahead on dealing with the climate crisis, moving away from petroleum as a source of energy. It raises a very interesting situation for me. I represent all five of northern California’s oil refineries. And so, we’re looking at some 30,000 jobs. How do we transition those refineries away from petroleum into renewable? And frankly, we’re making some good progress on that. So, California’s going to lead.”

Garamendi said, “Well, it looks to me like the Democratic governors around the nation are rushing to be the first to file a lawsuit. They’re going to have to wait until sometime in January. But the reality is that the Democratic governors, Newsom included, are going to fight back, particularly on the environmental issues. California, way, way out ahead on dealing with the climate crisis, moving away from petroleum as a source of energy. It raises a very interesting situation for me. I represent all five of northern California’s oil refineries. And so, we’re looking at some 30,000 jobs. How do we transition those refineries away from petroleum into renewable? And frankly, we’re making some good progress on that. So, California’s going to lead. Other governors — Democratic governors, will also be very active in pushing back, not just on the environmental issues, but on a whole host of issues that affect the citizens and the constituents in each of those states. So, count on a pushback on many of the policies. We have, obviously, seen discussion about this on the rounding up all of the immigrants and deportation issues. There will be a pushback, as there was in the first Trump term. But I do think that the governors will also say, if there’s a criminal, if there’s somebody charged with a crime, deportation is appropriate. And, certainly, it is.”

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