California’s oil hub hopes for a renaissance

EVERY five years, the fading US town of Taft puts on a days-long “Oildorado” festival to celebrate its glory days at the centre of California’s black gold rush.

- 

A pumpjack is pictured at the Midway-Sunset Oil Field, California's largest, in Fellows, near Taft.

(AFP)

Thousands flock to its parade of cowboys on horseback, antique cars and floats featuring oil pumps - a hat tip to the Wild West of yore.

This year, nine months into Donald Trump’s second term, the tone has shifted from reminiscence to renaissance.

Shrugging off climate change concerns, the US president has embraced fossil fuels with a stated goal of “unleashing American energy” and removing “impediments” to domestic energy production.

Some of Taft’s 7 000 residents are anticipating a comeback for the petroleum industry in California, which has pledged to abandon oil drilling by 2045 to meet its climate goals.

“I'm 100% satisfied with President Trump,’ Buddy Binkley said, a minority view in a heavily Democratic state. “And as for the state of California, I think he’s putting a nice pressure on them to hopefully turn around their prejudice against oil.”