BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) — After years of California lawmakers railing against the industry, oil and gas producers feel they’re starting to see a shift in policy.

In Oct. 2024, Phillips 66 announced it would close its Los Angeles-area refinery, marking yet another setback to the state’s petroleum producers.

Fast forward to now, and things are looking a bit different.

“We made progress, there’s no doubt. There’s still more to do, but this was a good start,” said Rock Zierman, CEO of the California Independent Petroleum Association (CIPA), during a visit to Bakersfield.

Zierman believes state leaders are realizing their policies are doing more harm than good.

“What we were able to accomplish is to recognize that it’s better to produce here in Kern County than to tanker it in from foreign countries,” Zierman said.

Perhaps the biggest win for Kern County producers in 2025 is the passage of Senate Bill 237, which fast-tracks oil permitting in Kern County and allows up to 2,000 new oil well permits annually.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill despite being an open critic of the industry in recent years. In his 2022 State of the State address, Newsom emphasized his stance on the industry.

“One thing we cannot do is repeat the mistakes of the past. By embracing polluters, drilling even more oil, which only leads to even more extreme weather, more extreme drought, and more wildfire,” Newsom said at the time.

A shift in policy is what Zierman said is the result of refineries across the state closing their doors for good.

“Unfortunately, there were a lot of legislators across the state that were perfectly comfortable with oil producers in Kern County going out of business,” Zierman said.

CIPA is based in Sacramento, but Zierman said that most of his members are here in Kern County. That’s why the non-profit held a summit in town this week to field questions from members about the implementation of SB 237, which goes into effect in January 2026.

“Even if you go back about 12-18 months, you had thousands of permits in the hopper at the state level wanting action, and we couldn’t get action. I expect that there will be a lot of appetite for new drilling in Kern County,” Zierman said.

But while there is progress, Zierman said there is more work to be done. That Phillips refinery is still set to close, and local producers need refineries in order to make money.

“We can produce more crude with these permits, but we have to have a customer to buy it, and our customers are the refineries,” Zierman said. “If we really want to fix the affordability crisis, we need to find a way to make it affordable for those refineries to stay open to take our crude.”