California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is completing a flip-flop on oil drilling, which he tried to stop but is now planning to expand in Kern County, thanks to the impending threat of skyrocketing gas prices in the state.

BREITBART has the story.

As Breitbart News reported last month, Newsom backed away from his long, climate-change-inspired crusade against oil drilling as refineries threatened to leave the state and prices threatened to rise to $8 per gallon.

In 2021, Newsom had all but doomed the oil and gas industry in Kern County with a moratorium on fracking permits, effective in 2024. “The climate crisis is real, and we continue to see the signs every day,” he said.

But in 2025, Newsom has struck a compromise with the oil industry that would see the legislature pass a bill that would allow more drilling in central California — and environmental groups are reeling from the change.

Politico reported:

Organizations that started the year with ambitious goals of passing legislation to hold polluting companies liable for climate change damages — fresh off the ballot box defeat of an industry referendum challenging the state’s oil well setback law — instead find themselves making a last-ditch effort with just days left to kill SB 237, a bill backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders that would boost drilling in Kern County.

Read the full story here.