by Katy Grimes, E&E Legal Senior Media Fellow and California Globe Editor
As Appearing in the California Globe
Assembly Democrats’ vote to Increase CA’s highest-in-the-nation gas prices
If the ‘Big Oil’ companies are so greedy, why are they only greedy in California and not greedy in every state?
California’s Assembly Democrats voted Tuesday to pass Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposal to decrease the state’s gas supply, which will clearly result in even higher gas prices at the pump.
Californians are already paying the highest gas prices in the entire country – even higher than Hawaii, according to AAA today.
Texans pay $2.73 per average gallon of gas. That’s a difference of nearly $2.00 per gallon that Californians pay a premium for.
California Governor Gavin Newsom called for a special legislative session after accusing California’s oil refineries of price gouging. The governor claimed that “Gas price spikes on consumers are profit spikes for oil companies, and they’re overwhelmingly caused by refiners not backfilling supplies when they go down for maintenance.”
ABX2-1 will give the California Energy Commission more authority to impose new mandates for oil storage requirements on oil refineries in California, even as California is on the verge of an energy crisis with the push for electrification by 2035, as John Kabatek, California State Director, National Federation of Independent Business warned last week. “The regulation requirements in ABX2-1 will artificially create a fuel shortage crisis due to limiting the distribution of fuel.”
