March 2, 2026 • 31 mins
The John Kobylt Show Hour 3 (03/02) - USC Prof. Michael Mische comes on the show with the latest on the high gas prices in California and how much prices will go up because of the war in Iran. More on the video of the depositions of LAFD firefighter Scott Pike and others that were released. Gov. Newsom has outdone himself again.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can't.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I am six forty. You're listening to the John Cobelt
podcast on the iHeartRadio app. We're on every day from
three until six, and then after six o'clock the podcast
John Cobelt's Show on demand. And in the first hour
we played clips of Scott Pike, the Los Angeles Fire
Department firefighter who testified in a deposition about he seemed
(00:23):
to be the only one in the fire department that
day who noticed the hot spots, the hot coals, the smoking,
the smoldering. I mean, he wouldn't even touch the hot
rocks with his gloved hand, and he's telling people and
nobody everybody wanted to go home, nobody wanted to put
out the fire. It was still bad. We're going to
play you some more clips later on in the hour.
(00:44):
Now it's a USA professor Michael Masche. He's been a
guest on our show a few times because he correctly
had predicted for a while that refineries in California we're
going to close. Two of them did close in the
last six months, and that was going to drive up
the price of gas, and that did happen. It went
up at least forty cents since the beginning of the
(01:07):
year because of these closed refineries, and now we've got
the Iran war that began over the weekend, and oil prices,
which averaged sixty five dollars a barrel in this country
bumped up about ten percent. It moves up and down
quite a bit, but that's the general range. It's in
the low seventies. Let's get Michael MChE on. Michael, how
(01:29):
are you terrific?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
John? How are you today?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
I am good. So what's this this war? What's it
done to the price of gasoline? And what's likely to come?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Well, what we're afraid of in California at least is
a convergence of factors. We've talked about this before, John.
Our refineries are we're losing refinery capacity here to make gasoline.
Our in state capacity for oil production has dropped throughout
the years, and now we're the most heavily dependent of
all states on foreign oil and now foreign gasoline. So
(02:07):
what's happening in Iran in the Middle East now is
the instability has driven up gasoline prices, and they've driven
up maritime vessel chartering rates and the price of crude oil.
So just to get the oil here to California, we'll
be more expensive and it'll flow through to the retail
gas punk prices.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Do we get any oil that actually originates in Iran
or any of the neighboring states neighboring countries.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
There, We get oil from Iraq. So traditionally, through the
last say, last decade, both Saudi Arabia and Iraq have
been number one sources for California oil. Most recently it's
been Iraq, followed by Brazil and Ecuador for oil. Plus
we've gotten some oil from the uae and Saudi So
(02:57):
of course, with the straits of our moves issues and
with the Iranians hitting oil assets throughout the Gulf Coast region,
you know that's going to create supply issues, particularly for
Europe and for California because all of our you know,
the majority of our oil is coming from those areas.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
That's what's crazy about Newsom banning oil production throughout much
of the state and also with his regulations and taxes
causing refineries to go out of business. Now we're reliant
on what goes on in the Middle East with all
the constant insanity there, I mean, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the
(03:42):
uae I, mean, all these places have to deal with
constant wars and skirmishes going on, and the waterways around
there are always in danger of being shut down, and
the ships are in danger of being bombed. I mean,
it's crazy that we're depending on that area of the
world to supply a big percentage of our oil.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Yeah, that's true, John, I mean, but that's been California's policy,
particularly under Governor Newsom. In particular, he was warned about
this though you know, you know I told it to him.
I published that, so did. California Energy Commission published a
letter June twenty seven saying, look, we can import this material,
(04:25):
we can import oil, we can continue to import gasoline,
and it will help stabilize the prices in California. But
any event, anything, a geopolitical event in particular, will drive
up the price of crude oil, and we'll have a
corresponding increase in the price of gasoline prices in our states.
So right now we're looking at prices between the summer blend,
(04:47):
which is coming up pretty quick here, that adds anywhere
from fifteen to twenty cents a gallon. We could expect that,
but with the Iranian situation, we could be looking at
gas prices going up at least fifty two to fifty
you know, fifty two cents a gallon, anywhere from thirty
eight on the low end, fifty two maybe in the middle,
(05:08):
and over sixty cents a gallon. Now, if if indeed
the price of crew goes, say to one hundred dollars
a barrel, then then you're looking at significant price increases
into the approaching the eight dollar number that I had
lit I had in May, in.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Addition to the refineries closing, in addition to Newsome not
allowing oil production in much of the state. This is
because you you were you were talking about having a
several dollars gas price increase possible, just based on all
the problems with his California policies. And now you add
(05:45):
the suburb blend, and now you add all the all
the craziness in the Middle East on top of it.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Yes, because demands not coming down in California, all right,
So demand's coming down a very moderate amount. I mean,
twenty four to twenty five gasoline sales were only down
less than two percent. And it's been like that for
the last twenty years, with the exception of COVID so
the amount of gas that we consume in the state
is around thirty five million to thirty eight million gallons
(06:12):
of gasoline a day. That's not coming down with any
significant thunder like supply is coming down. Supply it alone
just in the refineries between renewables, refineries that converted to
renewable fuel and that's not making gasoline, and the refineries
that we lost, which was filled sixty six in Valero.
(06:32):
We've lost twenty two percent of in state refinery capacity.
Now that's that's close to nine million gallons of gasoline
a day that was produced in California that's no longer
being produced here. So you have to stabilize the markets
and avoid eight dollars and forty three cent gas prices.
You have to import it, but you're importing it that
(06:53):
ads fifteen to seventeen cents a gallon. You're bringing it
in now from refineries in India, which is they're dependent
on a lot of Saudi oil in India. You're bringing
it in from South Korea that's Saudi and Iraqi oil.
And so now with this instability in the Middle East,
you're going to have increases in crew prices, which will
(07:16):
then increase California because we are the most dependent of
all states in the United States on imported gasoline oil.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Did you see the tweet his press office put out.
I don't know if people saw this. He was he
was over the weekend. He was bragging that, Hey, you know,
over the last two years, California stayed under five dollars
a gallon. They were setting the stage to blame Trump
when we passed the five dollars mark, even though most
(07:45):
of the country is below three dollars. He was trying
to sell people online. It's like, hey, you know, we've
been below five. I thing goes over five. It's because
of what Trump's doing. It's like, no, we're two bucks
more than everywhere else in the country.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
That's precisely right. And I can tell you that, you know,
gaven nuisance policies had nothing to do with bringing the
price of gasoline down in the state of California. The
prices came down in California for simply one reason, one
reason only. It was drill, baby, drill. And what I
mean by that is today the United States is energy independent.
We are producing our country about fourteen million barrels of
(08:24):
oil a day. That is an all time historical high
plus full Peck increased their production, So we have an
abundant had an abundant supply of oil on the market,
which obviously contributed to the decrease in gasoline prices because
the price of oil came down. Also in California, we
had you know, two major refineries operating until this year.
(08:49):
Now those refineries are down and the only thing California
can do to keep the price as low is prey
number one, that the price recruit stays low and prey
number two that it can gasoline in quantity to satisfy demand.
The second you have a disruption in that supply chain,
you're going to have issues with gasoline. And if and
(09:11):
if the state imposes this inventory of refined gasoline products
that they that they passed I think was AB two
dash one, then that's going to increase the price of
gasoline by at least seven to ten cents a gallon
because it's just sitting there in inventory. Somebody has to
pay for it.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Michael, thanks for coming on again.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
It's always my pleasure. John. I'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
USC Professor Michael Miche When we come back, we're going
to start. We've got more clips to play about the
fire depositions the Palisades, the lawsuit from the Palisades Homeowners.
The attorneys have released some of the video and audio
the depositions. We'll talk about that next.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Co Belt Show. We're on every day from three to
six after six o'clock, the podcast John Cobelt Show on Demand,
and you listened to our first hour today and we
played many clips from Scott Pike, the La FD firefighter
who testified in the deposition. The Palisades Homeowners' attorneys released
those videos and audios and we played some of them,
(10:23):
and you know, I want to I want to start
by playing Eric on one Scott Pike clip that we
had played earlier, and this is where Pike. It's cut
number four. Pike had previously said that a captain had
told him to pick up the hoses, roll them up.
(10:47):
Pike told them, Hey, there's a lot of hot spots here,
so why didn't he press the captain further? Cut four?
Did you ask.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
The captain why he hadn't directed at other firefighters to
mop up the area better?
Speaker 1 (11:02):
As you put it, No, because you don't question the captain.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
I just went back to work picking up hose awaiting
new orders.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Did you ever get new orders? Sir?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
And you can stop there, You can stop there. This
is the problem. E didn't question the captain. I know elsewhere,
he said. You know, he earned his rank, you know,
to make that decision. Trying to figure out who the
captain is, well, Pike said he talked to captain and
he wasn't sure who the captain was, but he said
(11:35):
he thinks it was from fire Station sixty nine. Well,
the captain who was on duty at fire Station sixty
nine that day was Michael McIndoe. This is from a
separate story in the La Times and early in macindoe shift.
(11:55):
His crew, according to the Times, got their marching orders
pick up the hoses left overnight at the scene of
the Lochman fire. Macindoe says he didn't think the plan
was a good idea. He had read the weather forecast
for the day and knew that any lingering hotspots would
be easier with the hoses in place, and he relayed
(12:17):
his concerns to a battalion chief named Mario Garcia, who
was in charge of the whole operation. And Garcia said
something along the lines of, according to Macindoe, okay, let
me go check it out and then I'll get back
to you. But Garcia's orders never changed. So Macindoe spent
a couple of hours that morning rolling up the hose lines.
And Macindoe, like Pike, came across a smoldering ash pit
(12:41):
and he sprayed some water with a couple of gallons
from his backpack and dug up the dirt. So Pike
and Macindoe both said that they saw the hot spots,
the smoldering ash, hot rocks. Pike said he informed a
(13:03):
Captain Garcia. The battalion chief said no one informed him
of any concerns. Nobody's taking responsibility here. The day, Mcendoe
testified he talked to the battalion chief Garcia, on the
hill and he says, I went up to him and
I said, hey, I hope you don't think I'm trying
(13:24):
to get out of work, because he had suggested rolling
up the hoses, and he goes, no, that's fine. And
Macado said he was trying to clarify that he believed
that the hose should stay up a bit longer. Don't
roll him up, But Garcia claims nobody raised any concerns
about the hose pickup. Somebody's not telling the truth here.
(13:52):
Then we had a battalion chief named Michael Mullen who
was on duty before Garcia, and we're gonna play you
his clip here because he testified he walked the perimeter
four times and he left the hose lines in place overnight. Uh,
let's put what did I say? All right, it's Martin Mollen.
(14:15):
Martin Mollen, play this clip. He said, Hi, stop stop,
that's that's that's my fault. That's the wrong clip. We'll
play you that when we come back. Yeah, Martin Mallin
said he kept two assistant chiefs, Vinnie Alvarado and Joseph
Everett in the loop. They in turn informed another chief
(14:36):
named Philip Flagel. And it looks like none of these guys, well,
none of these none of these guys wanted to stay there,
and none of these guys want to talk. Now, when
we come back, we'll talk about the California State Parks
(14:56):
and Rep representative named John Oda. And John Oda was
the one who said, hey, this is state park property,
will take over here. And Oda was supposed to watch
the hotspots site and he didn't, so we'll pay play
you some of John Oda's testimony. We're on every day
(15:17):
from three to six and then after six o'clock John
Cobelt Show on demand. That's the podcast, and they released depositions,
video and audio. The Palisades homeowners have followed a lawsuit
against the city and the state over the Palisades fire,
and first hour we played a lot of clips from
(15:37):
Scott Pike and you should listen to that on the podcast,
and we're playing some more clips here because there's two
parts of this. The Lachman fire was not entirely put out.
There were hotspots, smoke, smoke and smoldering, and it was obvious.
And they're they're they're having these firefighters testify and the
(16:00):
fire captains and everybody's going, well, I don't know. Nobody
told me. I mean, I told him, the other guy
doesn't remember, and it's like, you know it, All these
guys should be a lot sharper than this. If if
you have smoking and smoldering and hot spots hot to
the touch, you can't even hold the rock you got,
(16:21):
you got ash that's smoldering. Everybody in the fire in
the fire industry knows that winds whipping up a smoldering
fire will lead to a full blown blaze. Everybody in
that business knows it. And it's it's it's shocking. Nobody
wants to take any responsibility here, all these battalion chiefs
(16:44):
and these fire captains, nobody wants and now five fighters
speaking out first time in over a year, and it's
something they were texting to each other privately. And I'm
amazed at the cowardice. I mean, I'm I mean why
they carry themselves and the way people defer not only
to firefighters, but these these chiefs and these captains about
(17:08):
the noble work they do and the sacrifices they make
and how hard it is. But then their character completely
falls apart when it comes to telling the truth. How
could you not how could you not put out the
smoldering hotspots? How is that possible? Is that you do it?
Especially with the forecast for the high winds and the
(17:31):
high fire danger. And now everybody is hiding behind a
bush and nobody wants to say, honestly why they made
such How did so many people make so many bad
decisions at the same time? And then you know the
Scott Pike said, he was never interviewed for the after
action report. Everybody's been lying, everybody's been covering up. Well
(17:55):
here's now, here's the other part to it. California State
Parks and Raps showed up a guy named John Ota,
and Ota apparently was the one. I guess who is
in trying to get the firefighters off the state land.
And here's an excerpt from one firefighter from La Tommy
(18:20):
Kidahata his deposition, Where you guys.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Are at is state park land? Right, Yes, sir, it's
the Tapanga State Park?
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Is their dirt?
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Do you remember speaking to anyone from state parks the
state of California, including John Oda?
Speaker 4 (18:41):
Yes, sir, I didn't know he wasn't a firefighter.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
But did you ever hear Ranger Oda tell chief moment
the state Parks would be patrolling the Lachman fire area
after led finished up, after they left. Do you know
what I'm saying?
Speaker 4 (18:57):
Yes, because we're all together at that point.
Speaker 6 (18:59):
Yeah, at they'll have state park people looking at this area,
going through.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
State park employees would be going through, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
And looking for the same thing you guys were looking for,
because you don't want a rekindling to occur.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Of course, okay. So Kidahata says, yeah, yeah, I remember
John Oda and we were we were talking about how
State Parks and Rep. Those employees were going to be
surveilling the spot. Well, here is another firefighter, Martin Mullen
his deposition where he talks about interacting with this John
Oda from State Parks and rec.
Speaker 6 (19:35):
He said, Hi, I'm miss John Oda. I don't remember
at the time, it was real quick. He said, I'm
with the UH. I thought he was a parker manger,
but with the State Department. How you doing John? And
he says, I'm helping anything and will look good right now.
And he had stated he's going to be every couple
of days him his crew patrol in the area.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
They're going to be there for a couple of days
patrol the air, right, They'll be looking for hot spots,
they'll be looking for flare ups, right because the winds
are going to be blown really strong. This is right
in the middle of all those warnings, just two days
away from Karen Bass leaving for Africa. Now here's John Oda,
the State Parks and Rec Rep. Who was supposed to
(20:20):
be watching things.
Speaker 5 (20:21):
My initial training was while I'm sorry, Firefighter one, I'm
afraidding the name, but it's credential to under a national
working group that coordinates the different firefighter certifications across the country.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
And that was on the first correct. Yes, did you
ever return to the scene of the fire after the first.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
No, No, he never returned to the scene of the fire.
So Oda is telling LA Firefighter Martin Mullen and LA
Firefighter Tommy Kidahada that, yeah, we'll be around for a
few days. Well we'll look at this, look the hotspots, hotspots,
(21:01):
make sure nothing gets crazy. But he never did. He
never came back. So the alley firefighters leave and I
guess all these fire captains I've mentioned, I don't know
what they were rolling this, but they all left. They
told the firefighters roll up the hoses, let's get out
of here. And then you had these steak parks and
(21:23):
wreck employees. I guess they went home too. Everybody goes home.
Oh yeah, it was a long It was a long weekend, right,
it was New Year's weekend. Nobody wanted to work, Nobody
wanted to stay on the job in case there was smoldering, smoke,
(21:47):
hotspots crackling. Scott Pike said, you know, you could hear crackling.
He's looking at the ash pits still smoldering. I mean
they could see it with their eyes, they could hear
it with their ears, they could smell it with their nose,
they could feel it with their touch. They had all
their senses working. They could hear it, see it, smell it,
(22:08):
they could touch it, and they ignored their senses. And
everybody went home and the fire reignited. But there were
no meetings with the fire chief Kristin Crowley, no meetings
with the mayor. Again, we're running mornings every fifteen minutes
here on KFI about the incoming winds and the heat
(22:32):
and the fire danger. And these people never got back
together and saying, hey, is that smoldering still going on?
Is there new smoldering? They never did. Fire chief didn't
know about it. Mayor didn't know about That's shocking to
me again. How could that many people not know, not care,
(22:55):
make the wrong decision, all on our payroll, that's all
our tax money. They all got jobs they can't be
fired from. They're all gonna be able to retire young
and have massive pensions. They all get a tremendous amount
of respect and adoration from everybody in the city. Actually,
when it came down to it, almost all of them
(23:18):
are really really screwed up. They were afraid to speak up.
They were afraid to push back the firefighters. And I
don't know about these captains. Isn't it automatic that you
put out the smoldering if your firefighters are telling you, hey,
we've got hotspots, well, of course you stay there with hoses.
(23:39):
Of course you keep trying to tamp it down. Of
course you do. Why wouldn't you what that's never explained here.
We're gonna keep on top of this like everything else,
because they're hoping it all goes away.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from Kifi.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
We are on every day from three to six and
then after six o'clock John Cobelts Show on demand on
the iHeart app. You could listen to what you missed.
You know that Newsom is a shameless, lying, narcissistic psychopath,
but he's out doing himself. And it's first of all,
(24:26):
let me tell you the truth. The average price of
gas in this country is two ninety nine. It's the
average price of gas, and most states are at are
below three dollars. California is at four sixty five, but
(24:48):
the average is to ninety eight, and there are dozens
of states below to ninety eight. I think we jack
up the average a lot simply because of our size,
and it's going to go up across the country because
of the Iran war. There's no question about it. So
Newsom is now blaming Trump for soaring gas prices. This
(25:12):
is unbelievable. We're a dollar sixty five more than the
national average, not including whatever happens in the Iran war.
We're a dollar sixty five more. Nearly all of that
is California taxes and regulations. So Newsom today actually had
(25:35):
a press conference where he says gas prices are going up,
You'll be paying more because of Trump's war. We have
specifically had extensive conversations over the weekend gaming out the
worst case scenarios. The worst case scenario has already happened
to a large extent because he has shut down so
(25:57):
much oil production in the state, and his policies of
taxes and regulation has closed two more refineries, two more
gas refineries in the state. And it's specifically Newsome's policies,
(26:18):
and he actually complained about the gas scarcity and the
spiking of prices because Trump said it could be months
of additional attacks, and so why does he do this.
It's a blatant lie. Everybody in the room knows he's lying.
He knows he's lying. He thinks his Trump deranged voters
(26:42):
will believe him, or want to believe him, that they'll
get so whipped up with their incessant hatred of Trump
that they'll they'll suspend disbelief. They know Newsom is lying
to them. It is all Newsom's policies that has There's
(27:03):
no question, there's no debate about this, there's no gray area.
The rest of the country is paying two ninety nine
and below and we're paying four sixty five. But he's
actually standing there in front of reporters and insisting that no,
this is gonna be Trump's fault. Vince fog is a
(27:25):
Republican congressman, and he's called Newsom's statements dangerous, irresponsible. His
policies have made our state increasingly dependent on foreign oil. Yeah,
I mean, if you heard Michael Miche earlier this hour,
we're getting a ton of oil from places like Saudi Arabia,
a rock, and the United Arab Emirates and all that
oil has to be shipped through the waterways. So surrounding
(27:52):
the Middle East countries, the oil is getting refined. In India,
the oil is getting refined to gas in the Bahamas
and being shipped here. And so we're at the complete
mercy of all the insanity in the Middle East and
the rest of the world. So our oil production has
(28:12):
dropped dramatically, our gas refinery production has dropped dramatically, And
it's his, it's all his policy. And then he goes
how he blames Trump, thinking that all the Trump haters
will believe him, and maybe a big percentage will because
(28:35):
they're so stupid. Hey, Trump started the war here, and
the gas prices are going to go up because he
started the war. But that's not why we've been paying
a dollar sixty five more per gallon than the national average.
(28:55):
And if the war with Iran raises gas prices, it'll
raise him across the board, across all fifty states, We'll
still be paying a dollar sixty five more. And again
that's entirely Newsome's policy. But he just blatantly lies right
to the reporters. And I see him standing there with
(29:16):
this smug, arrogant look on his face, because he knows
this works on the stupid people who believe in him
and voted for him three times, and they are stupid.
If you can't see through Gavin Newsom, you have a
severely damaged IQ problem. I mean you really, you really
are a mushroom. You got nothing going for you if
(29:37):
you buy into his nonsense. All right, we got tomorrow,
we're gonna We got the transcript here and I haven't
read through it. Bill Mlusion from Fox News posted some
stuff and we read a few clips that he provided.
But we've got the names of some of the Pearl
(29:58):
Board hearing members voted to release the compulsive serial rapist
of little children, David Funston. Funston's now been rearrested because
he had other crimes he committed that he was never
prosecuted for because everybody thought he was going to spend
life in prison, so it wasn't worth the time. But
we got the names of son of these people. And
(30:19):
these are women on the parle board who voted to
release a guy. And this guy told the parole Board
on September twenty fourth that he still fantasizes about little
girls and he still pleasures himself over little girls. But
that he has a new method to deal with his urges,
and they praised him for his method. You're not going
(30:41):
to believe this. We're going to read it to you tomorrow.
It's all real. This is the real transcript. These commissioners
have to be forced off the board. This has to end.
These people cannot be in office anymore. They're making two
hundred thousand dollars a Year's it. So that's ahead tomorrow.
You'll be listening, all right, Jebra marks, Oh she's gone.
We got Michael Krozer with the news. Conway's next live
(31:04):
in the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. You've been listening
to the John Cobelt Show podcast. You can always hear
the show live on KFI AM six forty from three
to six pm every Monday through Friday, and of course
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio
Speaker 4 (31:18):
App KFI Am six More stimulating talk
Can't.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I am six forty. You're listening to the John Cobelt
podcast on the iHeartRadio app. We're on every day from
three until six, and then after six o'clock the podcast
John Cobelt's Show on demand. And in the first hour
we played clips of Scott Pike, the Los Angeles Fire
Department firefighter who testified in a deposition about he seemed
(00:23):
to be the only one in the fire department that
day who noticed the hot spots, the hot coals, the smoking,
the smoldering. I mean, he wouldn't even touch the hot
rocks with his gloved hand, and he's telling people and
nobody everybody wanted to go home, nobody wanted to put
out the fire. It was still bad. We're going to
play you some more clips later on in the hour.
(00:44):
Now it's a USA professor Michael Masche. He's been a
guest on our show a few times because he correctly
had predicted for a while that refineries in California we're
going to close. Two of them did close in the
last six months, and that was going to drive up
the price of gas, and that did happen. It went
up at least forty cents since the beginning of the
(01:07):
year because of these closed refineries, and now we've got
the Iran war that began over the weekend, and oil prices,
which averaged sixty five dollars a barrel in this country
bumped up about ten percent. It moves up and down
quite a bit, but that's the general range. It's in
the low seventies. Let's get Michael MChE on. Michael, how
(01:29):
are you terrific?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
John? How are you today?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
I am good. So what's this this war? What's it
done to the price of gasoline? And what's likely to come?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Well, what we're afraid of in California at least is
a convergence of factors. We've talked about this before, John.
Our refineries are we're losing refinery capacity here to make gasoline.
Our in state capacity for oil production has dropped throughout
the years, and now we're the most heavily dependent of
all states on foreign oil and now foreign gasoline. So
(02:07):
what's happening in Iran in the Middle East now is
the instability has driven up gasoline prices, and they've driven
up maritime vessel chartering rates and the price of crude oil.
So just to get the oil here to California, we'll
be more expensive and it'll flow through to the retail
gas punk prices.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Do we get any oil that actually originates in Iran
or any of the neighboring states neighboring countries.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
There, We get oil from Iraq. So traditionally, through the
last say, last decade, both Saudi Arabia and Iraq have
been number one sources for California oil. Most recently it's
been Iraq, followed by Brazil and Ecuador for oil. Plus
we've gotten some oil from the uae and Saudi So
(02:57):
of course, with the straits of our moves issues and
with the Iranians hitting oil assets throughout the Gulf Coast region,
you know that's going to create supply issues, particularly for
Europe and for California because all of our you know,
the majority of our oil is coming from those areas.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
That's what's crazy about Newsom banning oil production throughout much
of the state and also with his regulations and taxes
causing refineries to go out of business. Now we're reliant
on what goes on in the Middle East with all
the constant insanity there, I mean, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the
(03:42):
uae I, mean, all these places have to deal with
constant wars and skirmishes going on, and the waterways around
there are always in danger of being shut down, and
the ships are in danger of being bombed. I mean,
it's crazy that we're depending on that area of the
world to supply a big percentage of our oil.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Yeah, that's true, John, I mean, but that's been California's policy,
particularly under Governor Newsom. In particular, he was warned about
this though you know, you know I told it to him.
I published that, so did. California Energy Commission published a
letter June twenty seven saying, look, we can import this material,
(04:25):
we can import oil, we can continue to import gasoline,
and it will help stabilize the prices in California. But
any event, anything, a geopolitical event in particular, will drive
up the price of crude oil, and we'll have a
corresponding increase in the price of gasoline prices in our states.
So right now we're looking at prices between the summer blend,
(04:47):
which is coming up pretty quick here, that adds anywhere
from fifteen to twenty cents a gallon. We could expect that,
but with the Iranian situation, we could be looking at
gas prices going up at least fifty two to fifty
you know, fifty two cents a gallon, anywhere from thirty
eight on the low end, fifty two maybe in the middle,
(05:08):
and over sixty cents a gallon. Now, if if indeed
the price of crew goes, say to one hundred dollars
a barrel, then then you're looking at significant price increases
into the approaching the eight dollar number that I had
lit I had in May, in.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Addition to the refineries closing, in addition to Newsome not
allowing oil production in much of the state. This is
because you you were you were talking about having a
several dollars gas price increase possible, just based on all
the problems with his California policies. And now you add
(05:45):
the suburb blend, and now you add all the all
the craziness in the Middle East on top of it.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Yes, because demands not coming down in California, all right,
So demand's coming down a very moderate amount. I mean,
twenty four to twenty five gasoline sales were only down
less than two percent. And it's been like that for
the last twenty years, with the exception of COVID so
the amount of gas that we consume in the state
is around thirty five million to thirty eight million gallons
(06:12):
of gasoline a day. That's not coming down with any
significant thunder like supply is coming down. Supply it alone
just in the refineries between renewables, refineries that converted to
renewable fuel and that's not making gasoline, and the refineries
that we lost, which was filled sixty six in Valero.
(06:32):
We've lost twenty two percent of in state refinery capacity.
Now that's that's close to nine million gallons of gasoline
a day that was produced in California that's no longer
being produced here. So you have to stabilize the markets
and avoid eight dollars and forty three cent gas prices.
You have to import it, but you're importing it that
(06:53):
ads fifteen to seventeen cents a gallon. You're bringing it
in now from refineries in India, which is they're dependent
on a lot of Saudi oil in India. You're bringing
it in from South Korea that's Saudi and Iraqi oil.
And so now with this instability in the Middle East,
you're going to have increases in crew prices, which will
(07:16):
then increase California because we are the most dependent of
all states in the United States on imported gasoline oil.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Did you see the tweet his press office put out.
I don't know if people saw this. He was he
was over the weekend. He was bragging that, Hey, you know,
over the last two years, California stayed under five dollars
a gallon. They were setting the stage to blame Trump
when we passed the five dollars mark, even though most
(07:45):
of the country is below three dollars. He was trying
to sell people online. It's like, hey, you know, we've
been below five. I thing goes over five. It's because
of what Trump's doing. It's like, no, we're two bucks
more than everywhere else in the country.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
That's precisely right. And I can tell you that, you know,
gaven nuisance policies had nothing to do with bringing the
price of gasoline down in the state of California. The
prices came down in California for simply one reason, one
reason only. It was drill, baby, drill. And what I
mean by that is today the United States is energy independent.
We are producing our country about fourteen million barrels of
(08:24):
oil a day. That is an all time historical high
plus full Peck increased their production, So we have an
abundant had an abundant supply of oil on the market,
which obviously contributed to the decrease in gasoline prices because
the price of oil came down. Also in California, we
had you know, two major refineries operating until this year.
(08:49):
Now those refineries are down and the only thing California
can do to keep the price as low is prey
number one, that the price recruit stays low and prey
number two that it can gasoline in quantity to satisfy demand.
The second you have a disruption in that supply chain,
you're going to have issues with gasoline. And if and
(09:11):
if the state imposes this inventory of refined gasoline products
that they that they passed I think was AB two
dash one, then that's going to increase the price of
gasoline by at least seven to ten cents a gallon
because it's just sitting there in inventory. Somebody has to
pay for it.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Michael, thanks for coming on again.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
It's always my pleasure. John. I'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
USC Professor Michael Miche When we come back, we're going
to start. We've got more clips to play about the
fire depositions the Palisades, the lawsuit from the Palisades Homeowners.
The attorneys have released some of the video and audio
the depositions. We'll talk about that next.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Co Belt Show. We're on every day from three to
six after six o'clock, the podcast John Cobelt Show on Demand,
and you listened to our first hour today and we
played many clips from Scott Pike, the La FD firefighter
who testified in the deposition. The Palisades Homeowners' attorneys released
those videos and audios and we played some of them,
(10:23):
and you know, I want to I want to start
by playing Eric on one Scott Pike clip that we
had played earlier, and this is where Pike. It's cut
number four. Pike had previously said that a captain had
told him to pick up the hoses, roll them up.
(10:47):
Pike told them, Hey, there's a lot of hot spots here,
so why didn't he press the captain further? Cut four?
Did you ask.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
The captain why he hadn't directed at other firefighters to
mop up the area better?
Speaker 1 (11:02):
As you put it, No, because you don't question the captain.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
I just went back to work picking up hose awaiting
new orders.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Did you ever get new orders? Sir?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
And you can stop there, You can stop there. This
is the problem. E didn't question the captain. I know elsewhere,
he said. You know, he earned his rank, you know,
to make that decision. Trying to figure out who the
captain is, well, Pike said he talked to captain and
he wasn't sure who the captain was, but he said
(11:35):
he thinks it was from fire Station sixty nine. Well,
the captain who was on duty at fire Station sixty
nine that day was Michael McIndoe. This is from a
separate story in the La Times and early in macindoe shift.
(11:55):
His crew, according to the Times, got their marching orders
pick up the hoses left overnight at the scene of
the Lochman fire. Macindoe says he didn't think the plan
was a good idea. He had read the weather forecast
for the day and knew that any lingering hotspots would
be easier with the hoses in place, and he relayed
(12:17):
his concerns to a battalion chief named Mario Garcia, who
was in charge of the whole operation. And Garcia said
something along the lines of, according to Macindoe, okay, let
me go check it out and then I'll get back
to you. But Garcia's orders never changed. So Macindoe spent
a couple of hours that morning rolling up the hose lines.
And Macindoe, like Pike, came across a smoldering ash pit
(12:41):
and he sprayed some water with a couple of gallons
from his backpack and dug up the dirt. So Pike
and Macindoe both said that they saw the hot spots,
the smoldering ash, hot rocks. Pike said he informed a
(13:03):
Captain Garcia. The battalion chief said no one informed him
of any concerns. Nobody's taking responsibility here. The day, Mcendoe
testified he talked to the battalion chief Garcia, on the
hill and he says, I went up to him and
I said, hey, I hope you don't think I'm trying
(13:24):
to get out of work, because he had suggested rolling
up the hoses, and he goes, no, that's fine. And
Macado said he was trying to clarify that he believed
that the hose should stay up a bit longer. Don't
roll him up, But Garcia claims nobody raised any concerns
about the hose pickup. Somebody's not telling the truth here.
(13:52):
Then we had a battalion chief named Michael Mullen who
was on duty before Garcia, and we're gonna play you
his clip here because he testified he walked the perimeter
four times and he left the hose lines in place overnight. Uh,
let's put what did I say? All right, it's Martin Mollen.
(14:15):
Martin Mollen, play this clip. He said, Hi, stop stop,
that's that's that's my fault. That's the wrong clip. We'll
play you that when we come back. Yeah, Martin Mallin
said he kept two assistant chiefs, Vinnie Alvarado and Joseph
Everett in the loop. They in turn informed another chief
(14:36):
named Philip Flagel. And it looks like none of these guys, well,
none of these none of these guys wanted to stay there,
and none of these guys want to talk. Now, when
we come back, we'll talk about the California State Parks
(14:56):
and Rep representative named John Oda. And John Oda was
the one who said, hey, this is state park property,
will take over here. And Oda was supposed to watch
the hotspots site and he didn't, so we'll pay play
you some of John Oda's testimony. We're on every day
(15:17):
from three to six and then after six o'clock John
Cobelt Show on demand. That's the podcast, and they released depositions,
video and audio. The Palisades homeowners have followed a lawsuit
against the city and the state over the Palisades fire,
and first hour we played a lot of clips from
(15:37):
Scott Pike and you should listen to that on the podcast,
and we're playing some more clips here because there's two
parts of this. The Lachman fire was not entirely put out.
There were hotspots, smoke, smoke and smoldering, and it was obvious.
And they're they're they're having these firefighters testify and the
(16:00):
fire captains and everybody's going, well, I don't know. Nobody
told me. I mean, I told him, the other guy
doesn't remember, and it's like, you know it, All these
guys should be a lot sharper than this. If if
you have smoking and smoldering and hot spots hot to
the touch, you can't even hold the rock you got,
(16:21):
you got ash that's smoldering. Everybody in the fire in
the fire industry knows that winds whipping up a smoldering
fire will lead to a full blown blaze. Everybody in
that business knows it. And it's it's it's shocking. Nobody
wants to take any responsibility here, all these battalion chiefs
(16:44):
and these fire captains, nobody wants and now five fighters
speaking out first time in over a year, and it's
something they were texting to each other privately. And I'm
amazed at the cowardice. I mean, I'm I mean why
they carry themselves and the way people defer not only
to firefighters, but these these chiefs and these captains about
(17:08):
the noble work they do and the sacrifices they make
and how hard it is. But then their character completely
falls apart when it comes to telling the truth. How
could you not how could you not put out the
smoldering hotspots? How is that possible? Is that you do it?
Especially with the forecast for the high winds and the
(17:31):
high fire danger. And now everybody is hiding behind a
bush and nobody wants to say, honestly why they made
such How did so many people make so many bad
decisions at the same time? And then you know the
Scott Pike said, he was never interviewed for the after
action report. Everybody's been lying, everybody's been covering up. Well
(17:55):
here's now, here's the other part to it. California State
Parks and Raps showed up a guy named John Ota,
and Ota apparently was the one. I guess who is
in trying to get the firefighters off the state land.
And here's an excerpt from one firefighter from La Tommy
(18:20):
Kidahata his deposition, Where you guys.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Are at is state park land? Right, Yes, sir, it's
the Tapanga State Park?
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Is their dirt?
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Do you remember speaking to anyone from state parks the
state of California, including John Oda?
Speaker 4 (18:41):
Yes, sir, I didn't know he wasn't a firefighter.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
But did you ever hear Ranger Oda tell chief moment
the state Parks would be patrolling the Lachman fire area
after led finished up, after they left. Do you know
what I'm saying?
Speaker 4 (18:57):
Yes, because we're all together at that point.
Speaker 6 (18:59):
Yeah, at they'll have state park people looking at this area,
going through.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
State park employees would be going through, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
And looking for the same thing you guys were looking for,
because you don't want a rekindling to occur.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Of course, okay. So Kidahata says, yeah, yeah, I remember
John Oda and we were we were talking about how
State Parks and Rep. Those employees were going to be
surveilling the spot. Well, here is another firefighter, Martin Mullen
his deposition where he talks about interacting with this John
Oda from State Parks and rec.
Speaker 6 (19:35):
He said, Hi, I'm miss John Oda. I don't remember
at the time, it was real quick. He said, I'm
with the UH. I thought he was a parker manger,
but with the State Department. How you doing John? And
he says, I'm helping anything and will look good right now.
And he had stated he's going to be every couple
of days him his crew patrol in the area.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
They're going to be there for a couple of days
patrol the air, right, They'll be looking for hot spots,
they'll be looking for flare ups, right because the winds
are going to be blown really strong. This is right
in the middle of all those warnings, just two days
away from Karen Bass leaving for Africa. Now here's John Oda,
the State Parks and Rec Rep. Who was supposed to
(20:20):
be watching things.
Speaker 5 (20:21):
My initial training was while I'm sorry, Firefighter one, I'm
afraidding the name, but it's credential to under a national
working group that coordinates the different firefighter certifications across the country.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
And that was on the first correct. Yes, did you
ever return to the scene of the fire after the first.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
No, No, he never returned to the scene of the fire.
So Oda is telling LA Firefighter Martin Mullen and LA
Firefighter Tommy Kidahada that, yeah, we'll be around for a
few days. Well we'll look at this, look the hotspots, hotspots,
(21:01):
make sure nothing gets crazy. But he never did. He
never came back. So the alley firefighters leave and I
guess all these fire captains I've mentioned, I don't know
what they were rolling this, but they all left. They
told the firefighters roll up the hoses, let's get out
of here. And then you had these steak parks and
(21:23):
wreck employees. I guess they went home too. Everybody goes home.
Oh yeah, it was a long It was a long weekend, right,
it was New Year's weekend. Nobody wanted to work, Nobody
wanted to stay on the job in case there was smoldering, smoke,
(21:47):
hotspots crackling. Scott Pike said, you know, you could hear crackling.
He's looking at the ash pits still smoldering. I mean
they could see it with their eyes, they could hear
it with their ears, they could smell it with their nose,
they could feel it with their touch. They had all
their senses working. They could hear it, see it, smell it,
(22:08):
they could touch it, and they ignored their senses. And
everybody went home and the fire reignited. But there were
no meetings with the fire chief Kristin Crowley, no meetings
with the mayor. Again, we're running mornings every fifteen minutes
here on KFI about the incoming winds and the heat
(22:32):
and the fire danger. And these people never got back
together and saying, hey, is that smoldering still going on?
Is there new smoldering? They never did. Fire chief didn't
know about it. Mayor didn't know about That's shocking to
me again. How could that many people not know, not care,
(22:55):
make the wrong decision, all on our payroll, that's all
our tax money. They all got jobs they can't be
fired from. They're all gonna be able to retire young
and have massive pensions. They all get a tremendous amount
of respect and adoration from everybody in the city. Actually,
when it came down to it, almost all of them
(23:18):
are really really screwed up. They were afraid to speak up.
They were afraid to push back the firefighters. And I
don't know about these captains. Isn't it automatic that you
put out the smoldering if your firefighters are telling you, hey,
we've got hotspots, well, of course you stay there with hoses.
(23:39):
Of course you keep trying to tamp it down. Of
course you do. Why wouldn't you what that's never explained here.
We're gonna keep on top of this like everything else,
because they're hoping it all goes away.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from Kifi.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
We are on every day from three to six and
then after six o'clock John Cobelts Show on demand on
the iHeart app. You could listen to what you missed.
You know that Newsom is a shameless, lying, narcissistic psychopath,
but he's out doing himself. And it's first of all,
(24:26):
let me tell you the truth. The average price of
gas in this country is two ninety nine. It's the
average price of gas, and most states are at are
below three dollars. California is at four sixty five, but
(24:48):
the average is to ninety eight, and there are dozens
of states below to ninety eight. I think we jack
up the average a lot simply because of our size,
and it's going to go up across the country because
of the Iran war. There's no question about it. So
Newsom is now blaming Trump for soaring gas prices. This
(25:12):
is unbelievable. We're a dollar sixty five more than the
national average, not including whatever happens in the Iran war.
We're a dollar sixty five more. Nearly all of that
is California taxes and regulations. So Newsom today actually had
(25:35):
a press conference where he says gas prices are going up,
You'll be paying more because of Trump's war. We have
specifically had extensive conversations over the weekend gaming out the
worst case scenarios. The worst case scenario has already happened
to a large extent because he has shut down so
(25:57):
much oil production in the state, and his policies of
taxes and regulation has closed two more refineries, two more
gas refineries in the state. And it's specifically Newsome's policies,
(26:18):
and he actually complained about the gas scarcity and the
spiking of prices because Trump said it could be months
of additional attacks, and so why does he do this.
It's a blatant lie. Everybody in the room knows he's lying.
He knows he's lying. He thinks his Trump deranged voters
(26:42):
will believe him, or want to believe him, that they'll
get so whipped up with their incessant hatred of Trump
that they'll they'll suspend disbelief. They know Newsom is lying
to them. It is all Newsom's policies that has There's
(27:03):
no question, there's no debate about this, there's no gray area.
The rest of the country is paying two ninety nine
and below and we're paying four sixty five. But he's
actually standing there in front of reporters and insisting that no,
this is gonna be Trump's fault. Vince fog is a
(27:25):
Republican congressman, and he's called Newsom's statements dangerous, irresponsible. His
policies have made our state increasingly dependent on foreign oil. Yeah,
I mean, if you heard Michael Miche earlier this hour,
we're getting a ton of oil from places like Saudi Arabia,
a rock, and the United Arab Emirates and all that
oil has to be shipped through the waterways. So surrounding
(27:52):
the Middle East countries, the oil is getting refined. In India,
the oil is getting refined to gas in the Bahamas
and being shipped here. And so we're at the complete
mercy of all the insanity in the Middle East and
the rest of the world. So our oil production has
(28:12):
dropped dramatically, our gas refinery production has dropped dramatically, And
it's his, it's all his policy. And then he goes
how he blames Trump, thinking that all the Trump haters
will believe him, and maybe a big percentage will because
(28:35):
they're so stupid. Hey, Trump started the war here, and
the gas prices are going to go up because he
started the war. But that's not why we've been paying
a dollar sixty five more per gallon than the national average.
(28:55):
And if the war with Iran raises gas prices, it'll
raise him across the board, across all fifty states, We'll
still be paying a dollar sixty five more. And again
that's entirely Newsome's policy. But he just blatantly lies right
to the reporters. And I see him standing there with
(29:16):
this smug, arrogant look on his face, because he knows
this works on the stupid people who believe in him
and voted for him three times, and they are stupid.
If you can't see through Gavin Newsom, you have a
severely damaged IQ problem. I mean you really, you really
are a mushroom. You got nothing going for you if
(29:37):
you buy into his nonsense. All right, we got tomorrow,
we're gonna We got the transcript here and I haven't
read through it. Bill Mlusion from Fox News posted some
stuff and we read a few clips that he provided.
But we've got the names of some of the Pearl
(29:58):
Board hearing members voted to release the compulsive serial rapist
of little children, David Funston. Funston's now been rearrested because
he had other crimes he committed that he was never
prosecuted for because everybody thought he was going to spend
life in prison, so it wasn't worth the time. But
we got the names of son of these people. And
(30:19):
these are women on the parle board who voted to
release a guy. And this guy told the parole Board
on September twenty fourth that he still fantasizes about little
girls and he still pleasures himself over little girls. But
that he has a new method to deal with his urges,
and they praised him for his method. You're not going
(30:41):
to believe this. We're going to read it to you tomorrow.
It's all real. This is the real transcript. These commissioners
have to be forced off the board. This has to end.
These people cannot be in office anymore. They're making two
hundred thousand dollars a Year's it. So that's ahead tomorrow.
You'll be listening, all right, Jebra marks, Oh she's gone.
We got Michael Krozer with the news. Conway's next live
(31:04):
in the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. You've been listening
to the John Cobelt Show podcast. You can always hear
the show live on KFI AM six forty from three
to six pm every Monday through Friday, and of course
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio
Speaker 4 (31:18):
App KFI Am six More stimulating talk
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