Electric vehicle purchases are on the rise in Nevada, but the vast majority of Silver State drivers — 92 percent — still rely on gas-powered vehicles.

Those vehicles consumed 1.2 billion gallons of gasoline last year. When combined with jet fuel and diesel, the amount of fuel used in the state last year jumped to 2.5 billion gallons.

All that fuel was delivered to the state via just three pipelines — two from California and one from Utah.

If one of those lines goes down, or if a refinery that feeds the pipelines closes — scenarios that have both played out over the last few years — Nevada has no alternatives for procuring fuel. At any given time, it only has one week's worth of fuel in storage.

Because fuel is used for everything from trucking to emergency response, "a fuel disruption can quickly become a public safety issue, not just an inconvenience at the pump," according to the Office of Emergency Management/Homeland Security. 

Last year, Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) convened a team of industry experts, state officials and lawmakers into a Fuel Resiliency Committee to brainstorm solutions.

Nevada must increase its fuel reserves and reduce its dependence on California, the committee found. In a series of recommendations, it suggested doubling Nevada's fuel storage, supporting pipeline projects and developing infrastructure to receive fuel by rail. 

Those measures, according to the committee, would go a long way toward protecting Nevadans from future supply disruptions.

The committee's report was finalized just days before the election, which saw Lombardo, a Republican, ousted by Democratic Attorney General and Gov.-elect Aaron Ford.

"This is a win for Nevada if we can do something here, regardless of who's in power," Paul Enos, CEO of the Nevada Trucking Association and a committee member, told The Nevada Independent. "Diesel fuel is the oxygen in the blood of the economy. We need it. If we don't have it, food doesn't get delivered. Medical supplies don't get delivered."

A spokesperson for Ford did not reply to emails from The Nevada Independent asking if his administration will support the committee's findings. 

The California problem

Northern Nevada is the most at-risk region in the state when it comes to fuel supply, according to the committee.

Of the three pipelines coming into the state, just one reaches Northern Nevada, which includes the Fallon Naval Air Station. 

In 2019, the pipeline was shut down because of wildfires in California. 

And the refineries that feed the pipeline, like many across California, have been shuttering over the last few decades. The line running from the Bay Area to Reno is supplied by Northern California's last two operating refineries. Over the last 40 years, roughly 75 percent of the Golden State's refineries have shuttered as the state's lawmakers have passed multiple pieces of legislation targeting the oil industry.

Constructing an oil refinery in Nevada isn't a near-term possibility. In addition to requiring years of permitting, the state has almost no oil reserves of its own, and crude oil would have to be brought in either through existing pipelines or a new one.

In Southern Nevada, fuel is transported via the CalNev pipeline, which runs from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, and a second pipeline that runs from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas. In 2023, Lombardo declared a state of emergency when the pipeline coming out of Los Angeles, which also serves Nellis and Edwards Air Force bases and Harry Reid International Airport, was temporarily shut down. The pipeline was again shut off temporarily because of wildfires.

Something in the air

Another fuel-related issue is looming over Las Vegas: The region is struggling to meet federal air quality guidelines, in part due to vehicle emissions, and federal rules could soon require the region to use specialized gasoline to remedy the issue.

In 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) raised its standards for air quality ozone levels. The Las Vegas Valley was designated a "marginal nonattainment" area, meaning it wasn't meeting the EPA's standard under the Clean Air Act.

The region's classification has been downgraded twice since then, from marginal to "moderate" in 2023, then to "serious" in 2025.

If the Las Vegas Valley doesn't reach attainment by next summer, it will be reclassified as "severe," which would prohibit the use of conventional gas. Instead, reformulated gas, which burns cleaner but costs more because it is only produced in specialized refineries, would be required starting the following summer.

Reformulated gas is required throughout California. However, it is not required in Utah, which could affect Southern Nevada obtaining fuel from Utah if the requirement is put in place.

Storage, infrastructure and rail improvements

To address these looming scenarios, the  state should focus on developing increased storage, pipeline infrastructure and rail delivery capability, the committee said. 

Fuel inventory is the "binding constraint" for Nevada, according to the report. "When a pipeline goes down, deliveries fall to zero regardless of its size."

Adding additional storage would be the single highest-value investment the state could make, according to the committee, even better than  expanded pipeline capacity.  

Currently, Nevada's storage capacity is designed to match the highest weekly delivery volume of the pipelines, which is just six to eight days' worth of fuel. 

Storing fuel too long can cause gasoline to go bad, but a specialized storage facility in west-central Utah that can store gasoline for years without it degrading is located just four miles from the fuel pipeline stretching between Utah and Las Vegas. 

Capable of storing up to 840 million gallons of fuel, there currently is no connector between the storage facility and the pipeline running to Las Vegas. However, a line connecting the two could provide Nevada additional access to fuel without constructing new storage tanks or a full pipeline, according to the report.

The governor's office has asked the state attorney general's office to weigh in on Nevada's authority to own strategic fuel reserves, including whether those reserves could be stored in another state.

The committee also recommended supporting pipeline projects such as the  Western Gateway Project, a proposed 1,300-mile pipeline from Texas to Arizona and California with a possible offshoot to Las Vegas, and a proposed expansion to the line from Utah to Las Vegas. Because the state's urban centers are so far from each other, those pipeline expansions would not help Northern Nevada. 

The state's ability to receive fuel by rail should also be enhanced, according to the committee. After pipelines, rail is the second-most efficient way to transport fuel, although it comes with a lag time to get deliveries set up. 

Importing fuel by truck would be the least efficient means of getting fuel into the state. It would require hundreds of trips per day by tankers to meet the state's needs.

"My hope is that whether it's this governor or the next governor or the governor after that, there's a realization that we still run on diesel and gasoline and we're going to be doing it for the foreseeable future," Enos said. "And anything we can do to ensure that continuous supply is good for every citizen in this state."