Mike Umbro

Things Mike Says on Podcasts

Kern County Oil 🇺🇸🛢♻️ Offsetting crude from the Ecuadorian Amazon

Where to Find Them

Mike Umbro writes Energy News Beat . They have also been a guest on Big Digital Energy and TFTC: A Bitcoin Podcast . They also write for Energy FC on Substack.

Recently: “The GeoTES Revolution Solving California's Energy Crisis with Oil and Innovation” on Energy News Beat (October 2026); “Has California’s Oil and Gas Industry Hit the Point of No Return? - Major Pipelines Could Be Closing Within Weeks.” on Energy News Beat (December 2025); “The Sable vs. Coastal Commission Showdown, Explained | BDE 11.04.25” on Big Digital Energy (November 2025); “California's Energy Crisis: National Security Risks & The Future of Oil Production” on Energy News Beat (July 2025); “California’s Energy Policies are a Problem: A Major National Risk?” on Energy News Beat (June 2025); “#317: Exposing environmental LARPs with Mike Umbro” on TFTC: A Bitcoin Podcast (March 2022).

What They Said

“We'll import our fuel. We import 30% of our electrons. You can't import an electron from around the country and expect it to be zero emissions because it's not, or cheaper, because it's not… So you're just exporting your environmental damages to other states or countries and you're importing a more expensive product. So what are you really accomplishing?” — Mike Umbro, Energy News Beat

The guest runs an energy-storage startup in California's oil fields. He argues the state's policies have made it an importer of fuel and power, which he says leaves its power prices among the highest in the country without cutting emissions overall.

Energy News Beat · 2026-10-16 Permalink → Listen →
Energy News Beat
Mike Umbro

…all the benefits, it was banned through this executive order. So another case where a judge is, you know, basically saying, hey, we're going to throw this out and you're going to be able to stimulate wells again in California. So another sign that things are turning for the better in California.

David Blackmon

Yeah, that is a good sign. Yeah. I mean, do you feel like Becero is going to be any better on the issue than Newsom has been? I haven't seen it. Yeah, I do. I do.

Mike Umbro

…bunker fuel or however they're running their power plants on diesel or whatever they're running them on. It's like all the Caribbean islands. It's not clean, yeah. And yet it's still on par with our pricing, which is just crazy. So yeah, I think Becero will have to embrace money-making endeavors. And that's really what the state has been pushing us for the past eight years to be an import state. We'll import our fuel. We import 30% of our electrons. You can't import an electron from around the country and expect it to be zero emissions because it's not, or cheaper, because it's not. Or cheaper. So what's happening in the court system now is really showing that these climate accounting schemes are not legal and they're causing environmental leakage. So you're just exporting your environmental damages to other states or countries and you're importing a more expensive product. So what are you really accomplishing?

Stu Turley

Let me ask two questions because the cap and invest program and the carb programs are on the you pay what 20, 30 extra cents on diesel for this slush fund that Gavin Newsom can buy extra hair gel for his buddies. And then it goes to homeless or it doesn't do anything, doesn't do anything for the…

Mike Umbro

Yeah. You know, on the nonprofit side through Californians for Energy and Science, we show up and we advocate at public hearings and kind of share the truth behind the environmental leakage of these of these programs and the cost. For our project, we will be able to apply for and gain access to the…

Stu Turley

The only 2% of the United States imports from the Straight Hormos goes to California.

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode

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