# Trump's Big Oil Witch Hunt, $58 Cracks Spike & California's Refinery Graveyard | BDE 07.03.26

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/big-digital-energy-5494476/trump-s-big-oil-witch-hunt-58-cracks-spike-california-s-refinery-graveyard-bde-07-03-26
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/big-digital-energy-5494476/trump-s-big-oil-witch-hunt-58-cracks-spike-california-s-refinery-graveyard-bde-07-03-26.md
Podcast: [Big Digital Energy](https://stenobird.com/podcast/big-digital-energy-5494476)
Published: 2026-07-03T14:39:57+00:00
Episode link: https://bde.collide.io/episodes/trumps-big-oil-witch-hunt-58-cracks-spike-californias-refinery-graveyard-bde-07-03-26
Audio file: https://media.transistor.fm/d2e8c3f2/900deb04.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/big-digital-energy-5494476/episodes/trump-s-big-oil-witch-hunt-58-cracks-spike-california-s-refinery-graveyard-bde-07-03-26
Duration seconds: 3767

## Resource

Gasoline creeps past four bucks and everyone reaches for the same villain, but the real story lives in the refining margin, not the gas station down the street. Arjun Murti of Veriten joins Mark Meyer for a holiday-weekend conversation on why big oil doesn't set your pump price, how refining flipped from the worst business in energy to the best, what California's shrinking refinery count really signals, and the Lee Raymond mindset that still shapes how smart operators ride the cycle. Click here to watch a video of this episode. Join the conversation shaping the future of energy. Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward. Apply today at collide.io Click here to view the episode transcript. 00:00 Welcome and Arjun's background 02:55 Remembering Lee Raymond 10:09 Trump, gas prices, and the price gouging myth 18:17 When energy policy actually got it right 24:09 How refining went from worst business to best 28:21 Barriers to entry and the safety tightrope 32:47 California's refining wall 36:01 The Jones Act and shipbuilding 38:09 Environmental policy vs climate crisis 43:22 Ethanol, RINs, and ag politics 46:35 Capitalism, shale, and the LNG boom 49:45 What comes next for the upstream 53:40 Oil prices and the Big Tech double standard 57:48 Adapting to 2026 and the road ahead https://twitter.com/collide_ai https://www.tiktok.com/@collide.io https://www.facebook.com/collide.io https://www.instagram.com/collide.io https://www.youtube.com/@collide_io https://bsky.app/profile/collide-ai.bsky.social https://www.linkedin.com/company/collideai

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## Transcript

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