Newsom’s UK clean energy deal torn apart by ‘insanity,’ as critics question effectiveness
Governor Gavin Newsom’s clean energy deal is being burned as just another failure in California’s policy that has driven serious business out of the country.
The memorandum of understanding, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom and UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband on Monday, pledges to work together to tackle climate change and invest nearly a billion dollars in California projects focused on clean technologies by the UK’s leading energy company, Octopus.
“What a brilliant idea, the UK with the highest electricity prices in the world is teaming up with California the highest electricity prices anywhere in America except Hawaii to do more with the onshore wind madness that is already scheduled to destroy our beautiful California coast,” Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton said in a video posted on social media.
Hilton also criticized the Democratic presidential hopeful for “decarbonizing,” while laying out clean energy policies.
“We are so sick of Newsom flying around the world lecturing everyone about climate change while emitting carbon emissions, all while his crazy climate policies are giving us the highest electricity prices in America and the highest electricity bills after Hawaii,” Hilton told The California Post.
When asked for comment, Izzy Gardon, Newsom’s communications director, simply replied, “Who is Steve Hilton?”
Dr. Wayne Winegarden, a senior researcher at the Pacific Research Institute, applauded the goal of reaching net-zero admissions, but stressed that it must come without raising prices — a formula California doesn’t seem to have found.
“In the last eight years it’s gotten a lot worse,” Winegarden said, pointing to the weight of regulations driving the country’s refiners, including lower carbon fuel standards and inventory requirements.
Valero’s Benicia refinery is decommissioning and will close in early 2026, while Phillips 66 is shutting down its gasoline production in 2025. The two closings leave eight operating refineries that produce transportation fuel in the state’s second-largest consumption after Texas, according to the California Air Resources Board.
Following Valero’s announcement to close its doors in Northern California, Newsom highlighted several laws he has signed to combat rising fuel prices, including efforts to improve oil production in Kern County, and to provide the California Energy Commission (CEC) with regulatory and data transparency tools to ensure a stable, affordable fuel supply during the state’s transition away from petroleum-based fuel.
“While others are pointing fingers to spread fear and divide us, California is doing real work—working with industry, using data and transparency to protect consumers, and building the superpowers America needs,” Newsom said in a statement back in early January.
But, a new report from Bloomberg News shows that California is increasingly exporting oil from the Bahamas as gas prices rise.
More than 40% of California’s gasoline imports in November were transferred to the Caribbean, a record high that comes as the state’s drivers pay an average of $4.58 per gallon, the highest in the country, according to the outlet.
While Winegarden sees the importance of clean energy, he noted the “lack of stability” as a major concern.
“When the conditions are right we’ve been getting significant power from other forces, but when the conditions are not right, we have no stability,” Winegarden told the Post. “What we always see is that prices keep going up compared to the rest of the country.”
Winegarden added that California has prioritized becoming net-zero over “important factors of affordability and reliability,” where the state should focus more on technologies that exist today — such as using natural gas currently to reduce emissions.
“If we can use that, even beyond 10, 20, 30 years, but continue to reduce emissions, that’s an important step,” Winegarden said. “We rely more on what we want to be true or even what we think will be true in a few years rather than what is true today.”
A sentiment echoed by Tom Manzo, founder of the California Business & Industrial Alliance, or CABIA, who blamed Newsom’s “overregulation and business climate” for driving up energy costs and driving businesses away.
“The dream of clean energy – you know, we have high prices in the nation because they kicked out the refiners,” Manzo said. “Look at solar power, the biggest farm, you know, $2.2 billion in the Mohave desert and they’re shutting it down because it was only producing 75% of its capacity.”
Manzo also called out Newsom for spending time abroad, not in the state he represents.
“You’re not helping the state of California by going to make a deal with someone from the United Kingdom,” he said.
