Jerry Sturdivant’s May 12 letter blames recent foreign policy for Nevada’s fuel woes, but his Strait of Hormuz argument ignores 26 years of structural decay in our own backyard. This crisis transcends whoever sits in the White House. It is a regional infrastructure failure decades in the making.
Regardless of federal leadership, Nevada is tethered to a shrinking California “energy island.” Since 2000, California’s refinery count has plummeted from 23 to just 11, with only eight still producing transportation fuels. This exodus is driven by California’s hostile regulatory environment and a collapse in domestic production, not just temporary global conflicts. Consequently, California now imports more than 60 percent of its crude and has doubled its foreign gasoline imports since 2023.
Southern Nevada receives 88 percent of its fuel via California. When California’s infrastructure becomes brittle due to state-level policy choices, Nevadans pay the price, regardless of who is in the Oval Office. Mr. Sturdivant’s suggestion to build a refinery on the Strip is a sarcastic distraction from the real work needed to diversify our supply.
Relief lies in projects by Phillips 66 and Kinder Morgan to bring Gulf Coast fuel westward by 2029, alongside Nevada’s efforts to increase in-state storage. Until we look east toward Texas and the domestic heartland rather than just west toward a failing California grid, Nevada’s energy security will remain at the mercy of a broken supply chain.
