Fox News contributor Mary Katharine Ham and Zuma Global President Heather Zumarraga discuss California’s lack of resources to fight wildfires on ‘Making Money.’
On top of the destruction The ongoing deadly wildfires in California already claimed homes, businesses and other infrastructure, uncontrolled fires could harm the flow of energy in the region and beyond.
Lipow Oil Associates president Andy Lipow warned in a note this week that crude oilcould affect the supply of gasoline, diesel and natural gas.
Storage tanks at Marathon Petroleum’s Los Angeles refinery, which processes domestic and imported crude oil, gasoline, diesel fuel and other petroleum products, in Carson, California, on March 11, 2022. (Reuters/Bing Guan/Reuters Photos)
While five refineries are located in Los Angeles and areas of Long Beach are not currently under direct fire threat, several pipelines are, and this means the interruption of supply not only to California, but to other states as well.
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It could also lead to a build-up in refineries, which could be forced to cut their operating rates to maintain supplies. Lipow said the five Los Angeles refineries handle 60% of California refining capacity and 40% of West Coast refining capacity, including Alaska and Hawaii.
Vehicles drive past the Phillips 66 Los Angeles Wilmington refinery plant on November 28, 2022 in Wilmington, California. (Mario Tama/Getty Images/Getty Images)
He pointed to crude oil and natural gas pipelines near the Hurst Fire and Easton Fire and noted that the Kinder Morgan West Line has already been shut down. It supplies about 60% of the refined products consumed in Nevada and two-thirds of the refined products consumed in Arizona.
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“I have not heard of any outages of crude oil or natural gas pipelines, but they are at risk not only because of the obvious fire hazard, but they should lose power due to preventative actions taken by local utilities,” Lipow wrote.
A firefighting aircraft descends on the Palisades Fire in Pacific Palisades Tuesday, January 7. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images / Getty Images)
There are four large forest fires around Los Angeles. The White House said Friday that local, state and federal firefighters were able to partially contain some of the largest fires overnight.
Officials said the Pasadena fire is 3 percent contained, while the Pacific Palisades fire is 8 percent contained. The Ventura fire is 35% contained and the Sylmar fire is 37% contained.
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So far, the fires have destroyed more than 10,000 homes and businesses and left 10 dead.
