by Katy Grimes, E&E Legal Senior Media Fellow and California Globe Editor
As Appearing in the California Globe
‘Your policies have created this problem & pain at the pump that is hurting every single California family’
While California Governor Gavin Newsom is warning he may call a Special Session of the Legislature to impose additional tax increases on oil companies, it is surprising he professes no idea how gas prices in California are so much higher than other states. Gov. Newsom has the temerity to ask why, and is making grotesque accusations.
This is the last thing suffering Californians need. Californians already pay the highest income taxes the nation, have the highest taxes on the wealthy, highest gas taxes and highest gas prices at the pump, highest housing prices, highest energy prices, most regressive taxes hurting the poor… need we keep going? Gov. Newsom’s latest proposal is a new tax on oil suppliers, and will only serve to make gas prices even higher.
Sen. Shannon Grove boiled down the actual problem of California’s highest-in-the-nation gas prices and gas taxes to this in a letter to the governor:
With isolated markets, an inability to access additional fuel that meets California’s stringent standards, the most hostile regulatory requirements, the most aggressive environmental policies, the extraordinary expense of cap and trade, the highest tax per gallon of gasoline, impossible standards that are not found in any other state in the nation, and limited supply, there is really no need for additional explanation of why California has the highest and most volatile, gas prices in the nation. Simply put, your [Governor] policies have created this problem and have caused the pain at the pump that is hurting every single California family. In fact, federal judges have continued to throw out cases alleging price conspiracies by the fuel industry finding no basis for the allegations that you continue to levy.
