Gasoline prices in California have long been high, and increases due to the war with Iran have sparked a debate over who is to blame. Some Democrats say Gov. Gavin Newsom could do more to lower prices.
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The nationwide rise in gasoline prices since the start of the war with Iran is hitting California especially hard. This is because the increase is added to what are already the highest gas station prices in the country. The price increase has sparked a new round of recriminations between the state’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, and the Trump administration. And not all Democrats in the Golden State support Newsom. From member station KQED, Guy Marzorati reports.
GUY MARZORATI, BYLINE: Kern Rikhi pulled up to a Chevron in San Jose on Tuesday in his new Mercedes SUV.
KERN RIKHI: That got me really excited.
MARZORATI: Until he saw the price of gasoline at $6 a gallon and the premium gasoline he was buying at $6.39.
RIKHI: I didn’t think about this last week when I bought this car.
MARZORATI: Randall Raras says he has to drive to work. That’s why you’re trying to limit your spending in other areas.
RANDALL RARAS: It’s actually making me more aware of where I need to go more.
MARZORATI: And who do you blame for the high price of gas?
WEIRD: I mean, it’s Trump. Yes, I have to say it, but it starts from the top.
MARZORATI: California Governor Gavin Newsom also directly blames President Trump and the war in Iran for gas prices, the latest in his continued criticism of the president.
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GAVIN NEWSOM: We’ve seen gas prices rise because of your decision. Cause and effect.
MARZORATI: But California gas prices, currently averaging $5 1/2 a gallon per AAA, have long been among the highest in the country. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told NBC’s “Meet The Press” that he is ordering the resumption of offshore oil flows along the California coast.
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CHRIS WRIGHT: California has foolishly fought to prevent new American oil from reaching its own state.
MARZORATI: This week, a Texas oil company announced that it will resume flows through a controversial California pipeline in response.
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WRIGHT: We said enough is enough and we have new oil production in California.
MARZORATI: But UC Berkeley professor Severin Borenstein says producing more oil…
SEVERIN BORENSTEIN: It’s not a protection against a rise in gasoline prices when the world price of crude oil rises.
MARZORATI: After all, the United States is a net oil exporter. However, that hasn’t been enough to stop a nationwide price surge as supply from the Middle East has bottlenecked.
BORENSTEIN: Whether you sell oil in California or Texas, you charge a higher price when supply is restricted.
MARZORATI: Some Democrats here have focused their attention on California’s signature climate program, called Cap-and-Invest, which charges carbon polluters like oil refiners, adding about 25 cents a gallon to the cost of gasoline. More than a dozen Democrats in the state legislature who voted to make the program stricter are now calling on the Newsom administration to, quote, “reconsider” its implementation of the law. That call extended to California’s open gubernatorial race, where it was echoed by two Democrats running to succeed Newsom, including San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan.
MATT MAHAN: In a state that says it cares about workers and a party that says it cares about workers, we need to show it.
MARZORATI: Mahan is also asking the state to suspend its 61-cent-per-gallon gas tax.
MAHAN: To provide relief to people who have to choose between paying rent, putting food on the table and filling out their card to go to work.
MARZORATI: Meredith Fowlie of the Haas Energy Institute acknowledges that California leaders need to worry about affordability.
MEREDITH FOWLIE: I completely agree. But some of those cost impacts are generating revenue that is used for other purposes.
MARZORATI: The state gas tax, for example, funds road repairs. And Cap-and-Invest is designed to fight climate change and raise billions of dollars each year, ranging…
FOWLIE: To the investments we need to make, from wildfire risk mitigation to public transportation.
MARZORATI: It is a compromise solution that Californians themselves face. A survey last year by the Public Policy Institute of California found that most residents support the state’s ambitious climate goals and also feel that gas prices are a major issue for them. For NPR News, I’m Guy Marzorati in San Jose, California.
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