Article from Reason by Christina Britschgi.
As lieutenant governor, Gavin Newsom supported a 2017 bill increasing the state’s gas taxes. When running for governor in 2018, he opposed a ballot initiative that would have repealed that same increase. It’s 2019, and Newson, now the state’s governor, is demanding an investigation into why the state’s gas prices are so high.
On Tuesday, the governor sent a letter to the California Energy Commission (CEC) asking that the state agency investigate the Golden State’s roughly $4.03 per gallon gas prices, currently the highest in the country (and well above the national average of $2.86 per gallon).
“Independent analysis suggests that an unaccounted-for price differential exists in California’s gas prices and that this price differential may stem in part from inappropriate industry practices,” wrote Newsom in his letter to the CEC. “These are all important reasons for the Commission to help shed light on what’s going on in our gasoline market.”
…
In January, 19 state legislators—17 of whom had voted in favor of that 2017 gas tax increase, while the other two had only entered office in 2018—sent a letter to State Attorney General Xavier Becerra demanding that the state’s Department of Justice (DOJ) investigate the “unexplained gasoline surcharge” that was estimated to cost Californian families $1,700 a year.
Read the entire article at Reason.
Image Credit: By Henri Sivonen from Helsinki, Finland (flickr: California State Capitol) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
wpDiscuz
Newsum is plainly just another double talking California politician, of a stripe the voters there seem to fall head over heels in love with, who knows why. Stranger still, crude oil is found in California, and oil refineries are found there too. I did design work on one of them years ago.
Higher taxes mean higher prices.
true but not in this situation.. the only variable Tax on gas was put in by Ronald Reagan as a sales tax…
the other tax es is a constant which means it never changes from the price of a gallon, if gas was a dollar a gallon there would be 67 cents per gallon tax and a minimum 7.25%+ sales tax..
if Gas was $4 a gallon 67 cents would be tax and the variable would be about 25 cents sales tax…
there is for some strange reason a 20-40 cents per gallon surcharge that no one knows what it goes to and the oil companies wont state what it goes to
Is he stupid.? The reason gas prices is high is because of all the taxes…duh! He was in favor of them. He is just a hack politician talking down to Californians. He is not fooling anybody. We are moving out of California pronto! Let all the liberals deal with the feces. We’re out of here.
no its not…
the $4 a gallon has 67 cents per gallon tax covering several things, plus a variable sales tax…
take the tax away and the cost for a gallon would be around $3.25 a gallon
included in the gallon is a surcharge between 20 to 40 cents a gallon that no one knows what it is for and the oil companies wont state what its for
oil companies lay the blame on Maintenance and summer blend of gas… which is BS because for some reason they all shut down and run on minimal production…
CaliFOREIGNia sends gas to other states and they arent affected by high prices (cheaper) as they wont get away with their BS in those states..
It must be tough to be a liberal and have to live with the consequences of your STUPID ECONOMIC DECISIONS! California has rigorous standards for gasoline that drive up the cost, high taxes that drive up the cost. The oil company profits and distribution costs of California gasoline are no different than other states. The refining costs and taxes are vastly higher.
SELF INFLICTED WOUNDS. When everyone leaves California, but the homeless and illegal immigrants, who will pay the bills?
Mexico!
And that is karma for illegals voting in Californica ! Thanks be to
sanctuary cities
I’d guess $1,700 will hose a lot of human feces off the sidewalks — certainly more than the average family would need for such a task.
So you don’t understand how the higher tax rate on gas makes it cost more. Hummm that explains a lot.
Gavin Newsom doesn’t see the mega migrants flooding across the Borders causing an emergency, can’t see why the gas prices are sky high after he increased taxes on each gallon (just like Brown did recently), and I am betting that he will not see the health crisis starting to invade along with the illegals from South America and various parts of the World. There already has been estimates of millions coming down with measles and other unknown diseases to hit California and Texas soon.
Duh, if you are charged higher prices for gasoline because of increased taxes, it will cost more money to buy gasoline! The government of California owes me several million dollars for this information! Please remit in small unmarked bill in brown paper bags!
Gee… a two-faced California politician. Who would have guessed?
here is one for the books,
CaliFOREIGNia legislators came up with a surcharge of 2% at Restaurants to help pay for Climate Change..
the Restaurants can opt out by not signing up for the TAX…
if a restaurant signs up for it, a customer can tell the wait staff to remove the surcharge.. another tax to pay for what the other 3 taxes on gas isnt generating..
Stupid is as stupid does……and if the populace doesn’t vote these loons out, they might as well evidently hand over their paycheck…. won’t be enough left to buy food or anything else.
We’ve done this already many times. this Newsom is really an idiot….
Exactly what did they think would happen at the pump? Are they economic morons?