Excerpt: California Gov. Gavin Newsom must be grateful for the ugly divorce between President Trump and Elon Musk. It’s a useful public distraction from a crack-up in his own party over the state’s burdensome climate policies, which are driving energy costs up and jobs out of the state.
Democratic lawmakers in Sacramento experienced a political awakening of sorts after two major refineries recently announced they will shut down. A study last month by a University of Southern California business school professor projected that gasoline prices could rise to more than $8 a gallon because of the constricted supply.
Now the lawmakers who backed the Newsom climate diktats that brought about the refinery shutdowns are up in arms. “We have a crisis on our hands that may have been self-created by the actions perhaps taken by the state, by regulators,” Assemblyman David Alvarez huffed at a legislative hearing last month with the governor’s energy regulators.
Mr. Newsom claimed the Legislature needed to give his regulators more power to punish refineries for price-gouging. “I don’t hear today any evidence” of such gouging, Mr. Alvarez said. Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris asked: “If California companies were raking it in, why did we have two refineries announce their intent to close?”
Assemblyman Mike Gipson mused that increasing fuel imports once the refineries are closed could increase pollution. California Air Resources Board Chairman Liane Randolph concurred. But when asked whether the board considered costs of its regulations, Ms. Randolph demurred: “We don’t analyze a retail cost” of gasoline or “specific costs to specific consumers.”
After the hearing, Assemblywoman Jasmeet Bains demanded Ms. Randolph’s resignation: “CARB has been given so much power, they were prepared to ban gas and diesel cars and trucks single-handedly. It is outrageous that the director would pursue such policies without even trying to analyze the impact on prices.”
