TAFT - Shrugging off climate change concerns, US president Donald Trump has embraced fossil fuels with a stated goal of "unleashing American energy" and removing "impediments" to domestic energy production.
Some of the fading US town 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.
Located about 200 kilometres north of Los Angeles, Taft was founded in 1910 atop California's most extensive oil field.
Today, Kern County -- where Taft is located -- contributes more than 70 percent of California's total oil production. Its rural landscape is dotted with thousands of oil pumps.
A giant wooden oil derrick serves as a central landmark in Taft, which finances its schools, fire department and police force with oil revenues.
Despite its pageantry and pride, the town is in decline.
California oil production has been waning since the 1980s and has more recently been pinched by the push for cleaner forms of energy. Some of the town's residents have moved to Texas, where drilling is less regulated.
Many in Taft are delighted that Trump has pulled out of the Paris climate accord and removed obstacles to drilling on federal lands while handing out billions in tax breaks for the oil industry.
"I have great hopes," said Dave Noerr, Taft's mayor. "We have all the raw materials. We had the wrong direction, now we have leadership that is going to unleash the possibilities."
Trump's administration has slashed federal funding for renewable energy and climate science, and he wants to strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
Like the president, Noerr is a skeptic of "quote, unquote, climate change."
"We need to question the narrative, and we need to update those things with the existing science," he said.