by Katy Grimes, E&E Legal Senior Media Fellow and California Globe Editor
As Appearing in the California Globe
‘Stand up for yourselves – We make the policy’
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Gas Tax, as it is being called in some circles, would create a new panel of unelected bureaucrats with subpoena power, to investigate oil and gas companies, impose penalties, new costs and regulations, which would inevitably lead to gas shortages, rationing and price spikes. The bill creates a new government agency to arbitrarily decide how much profit oil and gas businesses are allowed to make, disrupting California’s energy market and threatening the reliability of the state’s fuel supply, according to Assembly Republicans.
The governor’s scheme is to “create a new independent watchdog within the California Energy Commission charged with monitoring California’s petroleum market on a daily basis to ensure market participants play by the rules.”
Like something out of Venezuela, where the oil and gas industry were nationalized, the amended bill actually states:
This bill would authorize the commission to establish a
maximum gross gasoline refining margin at an unspecified amount per gallon and would authorize the commission to annually adjust themaximum gross gasoline refining margin, as provided.The bill would require the commission, if the commission establishes the maximum gross gasoline refining margin, to establish a penalty for exceeding the maximum gross gasoline refining margin, as provided. The bill would authorize the commission to petition the court to enjoin a refiner from exceeding the maximum gross gasoline refining margin. The bill would also authorize the commission to
assess impose an administrative civil penalty on a refiner for exceeding the maximum gross gasoline refining margin.
Democrat Assembly leaders and members however, also received a lesson in Econ 101 and Civics.
