Fuel Resiliency Committee

Committee Overview

Purpose

Nevada is entirely dependent on imported transportation fuel, with no in-state refining capacity, limited storage, and heavy reliance on California refineries and interstate pipelines. This creates significant vulnerability to regional refinery closures, market disruptions, pipeline outages, natural disasters, and national security threats. These vulnerabilities directly impact public safety, emergency response capabilities, critical infrastructure continuity, and statewide economic stability. Strengthening Nevada’s fuel resiliency requires coordinated analysis and engagement across state agencies, private industry, federal partners, and regional stakeholders. The Fuel Resiliency Committee is proposed to provide a structured, collaborative forum to evaluate Nevada’s vulnerabilities and develop actionable strategies to ensure the stability of the state’s fuel supply.

Mission Statement

To secure Nevada’s transportation fuel supply by identifying vulnerabilities, strengthening infrastructure, diversifying supply sources, and ensuring statewide readiness in the face of regional refinery closures, supply disruptions, and national security threats.

Objectives

The Committee will pursue the following objectives:

Assess Risks
Conduct assessments of Nevada’s fuel supply chain and associated vulnerabilities.
Enhance Infrastructure
Identify options to expand infrastructure, storage, and transportation capacity, and mitigate supply disruptions.
Engage Industry
Collaborate with refiners, pipeline operators, distributors, and logistics partners to identify resilience options and opportunities for private investment.
Strengthen Emergency Readiness
Recommend policies and partnerships to establish a statewide fuel contingency plan, including evaluating the feasibility of a Western regional strategic reserve.
Advise the Governor
Advise the Governor on long-term strategies including the potential for strategic reserves and infrastructure investments.

Recommendations should consider the following:

Nevada’s current and projected fuel supply vulnerabilities.
Impacts of California refinery conversions and closures.
Pipeline capacity constraints and operational risks.
Storage expansion needs and opportunities.
Emergency response and continuity-of-operations fuel requirements.
Stakeholder needs.
Public-private partnerships and financing options.
Federal permitting, regulatory, and funding opportunities.
Statutory, regulatory, or administrative actions to improve resiliency.
Any issue deemed relevant by the Chair of the Committee in furtherance of theCommittee’s objectives.

Authority to Hold Closed Meetings

The disclosure of certain discussions and records relating to critical fuel-infrastructure security and emergency response planning could jeopardize public safety. Pursuant to NRS 239C.140, and subject to receiving the approval from the Commission required therein, the Committee would be authorized to hold closed meetings when such matters are under consideration. Notices of meetings would still need to comply with Nevada’s Open Meeting Law and would need to indicate when a meeting, or portion thereof, will be closed under NRS 239C.140.

All records received or prepared during a closed meeting of the Committee, including minutes and audiovisual or electronic reproductions of such a meeting, would be confidential, not subject to subpoena or discovery, and not subject to inspection by the general public, as stated in NRS 239C.140(3).

Key Takeaways

Why This Matters

Nevada does not refine its own fuel. We depend on supplies that reach us through California refineries, interstate pipelines, rail, and trucking. That dependence means a disruption far from our borders can become a Nevada problem in a matter of days, and not only at the pump.
Fuel underpins the price of groceries, the cost of building a home, the buses that carry our kids to school, and the operations of our hospitals, airports, mines, and tourism economy.
The Fuel Resiliency Committee exists to reduce Nevada’s exposure to those shocks. Its job is not to set fuel prices, no committee can do that, but to understand our supply chain honestly, identify realistic options, and build layers of resilience so the state is better prepared when something goes wrong.

Situational Overview

Nevada relies heavily on imported fuel, particularly from California refineries and interstate pipelines.
Because of that, decisions made outside Nevada, including California fuel policy, carry real consequences for Nevada families and businesses. Part of this Committee’s job is to make sure Nevada’s needs are understood and protected.
Global oil markets are interconnected. A war, shipping disruption, cyberattack, refinery outage, or port problem anywhere in the chain can show up in the price Nevadans pay at the pump.
Fuel resiliency is about far more than commuting. It affects food, construction, mining, tourism, schools, hospitals, airports, and the overall cost of living.

What the Committee is Doing

Our goal is a stronger, more diverse, more resilient fuel ecosystem for Nevada and a clear-eyed plan to get there.

Encourage industry investment that diversifies the fuel resources available to Nevada.
Strategic change to Nevada’s fuel ecosystem to increase diversity of options and resilience to disruptions.
Build a holistic understanding of our supply chain: fuel demand, sources, pipeline capacity, storage terminals, rail receipt options, trucking, and emergency response needs, along with the risks from California refinery closures to earthquakes, port disruptions, power outages, and deliberate threats.
Deliver a serious product: realistic infrastructure options, policy and legislative recommendations, timelines, and tradeoffs.
There is no single silver bullet. Nevada needs layers of resilience: better information, stronger coordination, more storage and supply diversity, strategic reserves, and smarter infrastructure.
Engage industry partners without giving up public accountability.
Strengthen emergency readiness, including how fuel is prioritized when supplies are tight.

Bottom line: Resiliency does not mean nothing bad ever happens. It means Nevada is better prepared when something does.

What This Committee Cannot Do

This Committee is not a price control board. We cannot set the price at the pump. What we can do is reduce Nevada’s exposure to avoidable supply shocks that make price spikes worse.
Nevada cannot become independent of California's fuel overnight. The investments, construction, and policy changes will take time.
Investments from industry partners have to make economic sense for them. We can create the conditions for investment; we cannot mandate it into existence.
Transparency matters, but so does security. We will not publish a roadmap that could help someone disrupt Nevada’s fuel system.

Current Fuel Price Pressures (Iran Conflict)

Fuel prices are under significant upward pressure, especially heading into the summer travel season.
These increases stem from global disruptions tied to the conflict and the constrained flow of fuel through the Strait of Hormuz, factors well outside Nevada’s control.
Nevada has limited tools to offset a global supply shock, but we are using the options available to us, and fuel suppliers are actively working to secure alternate sources.
Federal actions are helping at the margins. The EPA’s emergency E15 waiver allows expanded summer fuel supply, and the federal Jones Act waiver, extended to keep more fuel moving between U.S. ports, should remain in place for the duration of the disruption.
Rising fuel costs cascade across the economy. Groceries, construction, school transportation, tourism, air travel, mining, agriculture, delivery services, and small businesses all feel the impact.
Even after the conflict eases, prices will be slow to recover. It takes time for the system to reset, well after normal shipping through the Strait resumes.

Primary Questions

Will this Committee lower gas prices?
Not directly. No one can set the price at the pump. What we can do is make Nevada less vulnerable to the supply shocks that drive prices up in the first place.
Why so much focus on California?
Because that is where much of our fuel comes from. Understanding and planning around that dependence is simply being realistic about how fuel reaches Nevada.
Is Nevada running out of fuel?
No. This is about long-term resilience and preparedness, not an immediate shortage.