With gas prices in some parts of California reaching $5.94 per gallon as of Thursday — $2.50 more than the national average — Gov. Newsom is targeting Big Oil again in a new proposal that companies are calling a “political attack on consumers and our industry.”
Newsom is directing the California Energy Commission to require companies to keep a minimum stock of fuel inventory after a watchdog division found that as supplies drop when refineries shut down for maintenance, prices and company profits increase.
Newsom, in a statement: “Price spikes at the pump are profit spikes for Big Oil. Refiners should be required to plan ahead … instead of playing games to earn even more profits.”
The commission could impose fines for companies that do not draft resupply plans or maintain enough fuel inventory. The governor estimates that if this rule had been in place last year, Californians would have saved at least $650 million at the pump.
But Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president and chief executive officers of the Western States Petroleum Association, says Newsom’s plan shows “an utter lack of understanding about our industry” and that to impose new operational rules based on “such falsehoods is regulatory malpractice.”
The proposal also won’t make pump prices go down any time soon, since it will need to be negotiated with the Legislature first. The energy commission will then embark on a formal rulemaking process involving public feedback to iron out the details. This can take several months, though a commission spokesperson said it is “committed to working as quickly as possible to put the rules in place to help protect consumers from price spikes.”
Speaking of oil companies: A 2022 law on where oil and gas wells can go has not been implemented yet. And it may be delayed as long as four more years due to a last-minute bill, writes CalMatters environmental reporter Julie Cart.
The law bans new oil drilling within 3,200 feet of residential areas, and requires safety measures at existing wells, including leak detection. After it passed, oil companies poured millions into a ballot measure to overturn it, essentially blocking the law during that period. The industry withdrew the measure in June, but due to cost, the trailer bill could still delay oil industry deadlines to comply with some regulations for 12 to 54 months.
Sen. Lena Gonzalez, a Long Beach Democrat and author of the original law, said the new proposal was very frustrating: “There has been so much work put into this. We owe it to these communities to stick to our word.”
Schiff cements lead for US Senate
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff’s support has solidified over Republican Steve Garvey in California’s U.S. Senate race as the Democratic majority takes hold.
That’s according to a new poll out Thursday from UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies and the Los Angeles Times. Schiff leads 53% to 33% among likely voters, compared to 53% to 38% before the March primary, which also included two other high-profile Democrats.
There’s a deep partisan divide: Schiff leads 84% to 5% among Democrats, while Garvey leads 88% to 3% among the fewer number of Republicans. Reminder: Of the 22.1 million registered voters, 46% are Democrats, 25% are Republicans and 22% are listed as “no party preference.”
Looking back to 2020: California wasn’t immune from election denial. But on Thursday, a federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the November 2020 results and seeking to declare the state’s vote-by-mail system to be unconstitutional. The Election Integrity Project unsuccessfully claimed that some voters were harmed because some invalid mail ballots were counted.
The ruling: “A vote dilution claim requires a showing of disproportionate voting power for some voters over others, and plaintiffs have not made — and could not make—that showing based on the facts alleged.”
