US President Trump's administration is reportedly ratcheting up its fight to get more oil flowing from California, AP News reports

US President Trump's administration is reportedly ratcheting up its fight to get more oil flowing from California, AP News reports.

Federal pressure on California to raise output is a recurring pattern in US energy politics, and on past occasions the constraint has been state-level permitting, refinery configuration, and the isolated nature of the West Coast crude market rather than federal willingness. California's market is structurally disconnected from the inland system: it runs on its own crude and product specifications, relies on imports and Alaska-grade barrels, and refinery closures there have tightened local supply more than any upstream shortfall. Episodes of this kind have historically produced more litigation and administrative friction than near-term barrels, since permitting and environmental review sit largely with the state and courts have tended to move slowly. The distinction worth drawing is between upstream production, where federal leases can be opened with time, and refining and pipeline capacity, which has been the binding constraint and is not fixed by executive pressure. The follow-ons are any federal lease sales, moves against state regulatory authority, and the response of California officials, whose track record is to contest rather than accommodate. For crude itself the read-through has typically been limited at the global benchmark level; the more direct channel is West Coast differentials and product cracks, where the marginal barrel and marginal refinery actually price.