POLITICS
Governor Newsom signs legislation to prevent gas price spikes
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed a bill that he says will end gas price hikes and stop the oil industry from being free to make a profit at the pump.
Newsom signed the bill during a press conference less than an hour after the State Assembly in a special session Monday approved the measure with a 42-16 vote.
“(The oil industry) has been screwing (consumers) for years and years,” Newsom said during the press conference. “What I’m so proud of is we stood up, we stood tall.”
The bill allows the state to require oil refiners to maintain a minimum inventory of fuel to avoid supply shortages that create higher gasoline prices for consumers and higher profits for the industry, Newsom said.
It also gives more government control to the California Energy Commission, the state’s main energy policy agency, to adopt rules that require oil refiners to have surplus supplies before they go down for maintenance.
The measure was approved by the Assembly earlier this month with a 44-17 vote and by the Senate last Friday with a 23-9 vote. Monday’s approval vote by the Assembly was procedural because the bill was amended in the Senate to include more provisions for worker safety.
The bill was fought against by Republican lawmakers, labor groups, and the oil industry, which argued that it could unintentionally spike gas prices and threaten worker safety because delaying necessary maintenance could lead to accidents.
“Democrats know these new regulations will do nothing to actually lower gas prices,” said Assembly Republican James Gallagher of Yuba City in a statement. “Make no mistake, they have the power to lower gas prices today. But instead of passing any meaningful proposals, Democrats are doing the governor’s bidding. They should be fighting for California drivers, not helping Newsom distract from the price hike his administration is getting ready to impose.”
Gallagher said Assembly Republicans proposed several bills that would have immediately offered drivers relief at the pump, including a bill that would have suspended the gas tax and exempted gas from Cap-and-Trade. Democrats refused to vote on the bills and instead pushed forward with the governor’s “half-baked mandate,’’ he said.
California drivers are currently paying the highest gas prices in the nation. In California, drivers were paying an average of $4.67 a gallon for regular gas Monday, according to AAA. The average price for a gallon of gas in the nation was $3.20, according to AAA.
Californians have opposed this bill, stating it will either cause the prices of everything else to go up or gas stations will leave the state of California.
