AdvertisementWriting for Watt's Up With That?, Ronald Stein and Mike Ariza describe "the impending collapse of California's transportation fuel infrastructure," and conclude the state is "becoming a national security risk" to the rest of the country. It seems impossible to imagine, but the Golden State was once an energy powerhouse. Oil production peaked in 1985, then declined as fields matured, offshore production was heavily restricted, and environmental laws strongly discouraged new drilling. California had more than 40 refineries in the 1990s, and fewer than a dozen today. Stein and Ariza call California an "energy island" cut off from the rest of the nation by the Sierra Mountains.