Recently, Governor Gavin Newsom granted a small respite to California’s relentless attack on the state’s natural resources. Newsom signed the “California Energy Affordability and Security Act,” which allows Kern County to approve 2,000 oil and gas drilling permits a year without going through California’s arduous environmental review process.

This is a positive development, but it comes in the face of substantial state-erected obstacles to extracting California’s vast natural resources. If California is truly serious about unlocking this source of energy, it must take further steps to eliminate the barriers it has placed on its oil and gas industry.

For example, despite the new law, state policy still stands in the way of Kern County’s drive to permit more wells. That’s because a 2022 st

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