Readers React: California’s highly regulated oil refineries are part of the solution on climate change

To the editor: Jacques Leslie’s opinion piece vilifying California’s refineries serves mainly to mislead readers about the very real progress being made by the oil and gas industry to help our state achieve its climate goals, while also safeguarding the economic well-being of millions of consumers and businesses that rely on readily available fuel supplies at a reasonable cost.

While Leslie’s piece leaves the impression that cap-and-trade does not apply to refineries, California Air Resources Board data show refineries are significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions under the state’s system. Refineries also must comply with California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, which regulates the carbon content of fuels, and are subject to a number of state and regional regulatory programs.

Few industries are more regulated than California refineries. Our state’s demand for gasoline will continue, and rather than curb refining here, the goal of reducing emissions will be best achieved by producing the state’s fuel supply in the toughest regulatory environment in the world.

Employees in the oil and gas industry offer knowledge, innovation and expertise that will help create a sustainable energy future. Misleading rhetoric from entrenched anti-oil activists only makes finding real solutions more difficult.

Catherine Reheis-Boyd, Sacramento

The writer is president of the Western State Petroleum Assn.

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