A County Judge Just Exposed Gavin Newsom for Lying Under Oath About His Fracking Ban

Gavin Newsom swore under oath for two straight years that he never personally ordered a single fracking permit denied.

A Kern County judge just spent a nearly monthlong trial proving CalGEM secretly buried that exact order the whole time.

Now the governor's own hidden paperwork could force every well California shut down back open.

State Lied About Its Fracking Policy in Sworn Discovery Responses

Kern County Superior Court Judge Bernard Barmann Jr. tore apart California's fracking ban in a tentative ruling made public on October 9.

He did not mince words.

Barmann called the blanket ban an "invalid underground regulation" because regulators imposed it without the formal rulemaking process the Administrative Procedure Act demands.

For two years of litigation, the state swore under oath that no such policy existed, dismissing anyone who said otherwise as peddling "hyperbole and speculation."

Only after a nearly monthlong bench trial did California's Geologic Energy Management division, known as CalGEM, admit it had been categorically denying every new fracking permit since July 2021.

That is not a paperwork mistake.

That is a state agency getting caught running a secret ban while telling a judge under oath that critics were making it up.

Newsom's Staff Gave the Order He Swore He Never Gave

Barmann's ruling says otherwise.

The governor acknowledged his staff gave CalGEM guidance to deny the permits in June or July of 2021, and that the plans were likely flagged for him directly.

Barmann even dug up a 2019 interview where Newsom admitted he could not unilaterally impose a fracking moratorium.

He tried anyway.

The judge also found no evidence backed the state's claim that wiping out permits across the board was needed to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

CalGEM's own data pointed the other way: squeeze out Kern County oil and the same barrels get pumped overseas instead, under none of California's environmental rules, pushing total emissions up rather than down.

This is not the oil industry's first trip to court over this exact ban.

Chevron sued the state in March 2022, arguing the denials cited no technical, safety, or environmental deficiency because none existed.

The Western States Petroleum Association and Aera Energy filed similar suits that were later consolidated into the case Barmann just ruled on.

State Senator Shannon Grove warned regulators back in July 2021, the same month CalGEM started its secret denial policy, that Kern County produces the bulk of California's fossil fuel output and that killing it would only deepen the state's dependence on foreign oil.

Four years later, a judge confirmed in writing that Grove was right and Newsom's agency was breaking the law to prove her wrong.

WSPA's Jim Stanley called the ruling a "common-sense decision" and said flatly, "California needs oil."

He added that well stimulation is "a longstanding practice to safely produce additional oil from new and existing wells," not the hazard Sacramento spent five years claiming it was.

Environmental groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, are already urging the state to appeal if the ruling becomes final, which tells you everything about who actually benefited from five years of secret permit denials.

California Drivers Paid for Newsom's Illegal Ban at the Pump

Here is the part Sacramento does not want on the evening news.

California has some of the highest gas prices in the country.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton pointed out that Hawaii, an island that has to ship in every drop of fuel, still has cheaper gas than California does.

That is not an accident of geography.

That is the direct, predictable result of a governor ordering state regulators to strangle in-state oil production through a policy he denied existed in sworn discovery responses.

Every barrel California refused to let Kern County pump still got sold somewhere.

It just got sold from Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, or Russia instead, shipped across an ocean, and delivered to California drivers at a markup that funded Newsom's climate credentials.

Kern County sits on reserves the industry itself calls massive, locked away for half a decade by a regulation that never went through the legally required process to exist in the first place.

The ruling is tentative, with a roughly fifty day comment period before it becomes final.

Newsom's team will appeal, but they will do it defending a policy a sitting judge just ruled was never legal to begin with.

Sources:

• Hillel Aron, "Kern County Judge Rips California Over Invalid Fracking Ban," Courthouse News Service, October 9, 2026.
• Bob Hoge, "What Judge's Ruling Could Turn CA Oil Drilling Regulations on Their Head in a Good Way," RedState, October 13, 2026.
• Senator Shannon Grove, "Senator Grove Issues Statement on CalGEM's Decision to Deny 21 Fracking Permits in Kern County," California State Senate, July 9, 2021.
• San Joaquin Valley Sun, "Chevron Sues Calif. to Overturn Fracking Ban," San Joaquin Valley Sun, March 23, 2022.