Grasping for relevance, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is in the midst of a bit of a temper tantrum this week with the legislature – threatening to convene a special session if they don’t pass his proposal to further regulate California’s oil and gas industry. Industry analysts say that the proposal, which would force refineries to “maintain a minimum fuel reserve to avoid supply shortages,” would lead to increased prices for drivers in California, Arizona, and Nevada.
This asinine proposal is from Newsom’s California Energy Commission (CEC), which was formed in 2023 after a Newsom called a special session in 2022 demanding that legislators “do something” to prevent alleged price gouging by Big Oil. Commission members are political appointees, but the staffers are not. And, according to political consultant Rob Stutzman, the CEC’s own staffers believe this proposal will make prices…
