By Josh Richman San Jose Mercury News
12/29/14 07:18 PM
After months of seeing gas prices sink ever lower, Californians will ring in 2015 by paying more at the pump as a result of the state’s landmark greenhouse-gas emissions law.
But how much more we’ll pay, and whether it’s worth it, remains bitterly debated among oil companies, some state lawmakers and environmentalists.
Starting Thursday, gasoline and diesel producers will be subject to the state’s cap-and-trade system, forcing them either to supply lower-carbon fuels — which are more expensive to produce — or to buy pollution permits for the greenhouse gases created when the conventional fuel they supply is burned. In the short term, at least, that will mean higher prices at the pump, starting almost immediately.
“My understanding from the economists that we’ve talked to is that it will be very quick, sometime in January — if not on the first, then shortly thereafter,” said Dave Clegern, spokesman for the California Air Resources Board.
Opposition groups backed by the oil industry have claimed prices will rise 16 to 76 cents per gallon, although that’s admittedly based on an underlying price of about $4 per gallon — far higher than recent prices. A UC-Berkeley energy and economics expert says it’ll be more like nine or ten cents per gallon, which supporters say isn’t so high a price to pay for the environmental good it will do.
Some Democrats want to delay the program; most Republicans want to stop it entirely. But at present, there is little prospect of either happening, given the Brown administration’s strong support of the program, which is enshrined in an eight-year-old law.
“A lot of Californians still don’t know this is coming,” said state Sen. Andy Vidak, R-Hanford, who has a bill to exempt transportation fuels from the cap-and-trade requirements. “It’s going to hurt the poorest people in the state … Gasoline is not a luxury, it’s essential for folks.”
But the Air Resources Board says the state’s plan to ease climate change would be gutted without the program, and delaying it would only delay the incentive for oil companies to produce cleaner fuels.
Full story: Fuel prices going up as green-house regs hit gas, diesel sales
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
A friend recently made some home improvements and had a small contractor’s sign in the front yard. A couple from California pulled to the curb, thinking that the sign meant the house was for sale, then began asking about prices in the neighborhood, local food prices, etc. They were fed up with the high cost of CA and the changing laws, the intrusions into their lives. Everyone in this part of the country has heard the stories of California before, as there are now many Californians in our midst.
Anecdotes are not data, but there is a migration underway.
Give it a few years and all those California expatriates will be agitating for the very same policies which made California the place they wanted to leave.
Alan. You may find that some of those folks have shi! In their nest and now come to do the same in yours.
Yup, look at what they’ve done to Colorado and the larger cities in Texas… just like little Progressive locusts.
There is a migration out of Ca. Check out the Uhaul truck rental rates between SF Ca and Austin Tx
$700 Austin to SF … $1700 SF to Austin. UHaul has to pay drivers to return the truck to SF, so gives a large discount going to Ca.
The new taxes would generate a lot more resistance if they came at a time of historically high fuel prices. As it is, people have just started enjoying significant fuel price cuts, so the impact of new taxes will be considerably muted in the public mind. In effect they are being taxed on “found money”, and relatively speaking, they are still better off than recent times they can remember.
What the mood will be when/if fuel prices rise steeply in the future is a different issue. I suspect most people will have forgotten about these new taxes by then and it will only be by comparing California fuel prices with those in neighboring states that people can see the cumulative effect of all these regulations.
I wonder if an Indian tribe could set up fuel stations on reservation land and sell gas without collecting federal and state taxes?
I second your wonder.
Ditto
Tritto
Quadritto
and
Quintitto
I live near the Yakama Nation in central Washington State; the city is spelled Yakima. That small difference {a versus i} is just the tiny tip of contention.
“Yakamas are exempt from state fuel taxes on the 1.2 million-acre reservation. However, the reservation is a checkerboard of tribal and nontribal land, and tribal fuel stations get a fair share of non-Indian customers. State officials have long argued that the tax exemption gives tribal station owners an unfair price advantage. ” [from 2 years ago]
http://www.yakimaherald.com/home/736944-8/judge-tribal-court-doesnt-have-jurisdiction-over-gas
http://www.kapptv.com/article/2013/nov/22/wash-state-and-yakama-nation-reach-agreement-fuel-/
I have visions of state police check points at all reservation crossings, with troopers and IRS agents clocking your gas tank readings in and out. Then they issue you a “use tax” summons if you come off the reservation with more gas than you went in. It would happen in a heart beat, I have no doubt.
I have a temporary job in Tulsa, OK and gas prices are about 75¢ lower here than in my home in San Diego. That is already a huge difference. I think though, pricing may already reflect some of next years increase, which is why the Berkeley egghead can claim only a 10¢ rise. The other 10¢ is already in. (Sorta like claiming min wage increases don’t cause unemployment, by calculating from the date of increase, not accounting for the fact that businesses already cut back before the increase to avoid problems)
Note that Tulsa is about 30¢ more than Oklahoma City, where gas is now in the upper $1.50 range.
Shhhh.
And around $2.15 here in Utah…
$2.03 in New Jersey.
What is California doing with all those taxes anyway. Their highways are old and generally of lower quality than, say, Tennessee.
A substantial fraction of the new taxes go to the Brown Streak choo-choo train. That boondoggle is largely free of environmental review, naturally.
CA already has the highest gas tax in the nation according to this list 71.3 cents goes to the state and federal government per gallon. The gas station is lucky to make 10 cents per gal. So the government gets more for doing nothing. Ref:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_taxes_in_the_United_States
Wait til the prices rise again to average $4 – Californians will not be happy – especially the poor (and “middle” class).
The states with the lowest gov. tax per gal is Alaska $0.30.8/gal and New Jersey at $0.32.9/gal.
J. Philip. When the prices do rise again the blame will go to the oil company’s not the tax rasers.
California deserves to get the government it voted for. Good and hard.
As I think Churchill once said – a democracy (which we do not have, by the way, and never did) is a perfect form of govt because the people get exactly what they deserve.
HI JUST CAME BYY TO SAY ;;HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU FRIEND;;;SISTERDOT,THANKS FOR YOUR FRIENDSHIP
This isn’t really about doing any good – we all know any emissions reductions will be insignificant in their effects, despite the ridiculous claims about respiratory deaths (mostly amongst those on the verge of death already) or the climate change nonsense. That’s for the support of the environmentalists – the real reason is for the tax revenues that bankrupt California needs. The environmental malakey is a smokescreen, which fortunately for officials, is believed by the believe-anything CA greenie beenies.
“But the Air Resources Board says the state’s plan to ease climate change would be gutted without the program, and delaying it would only delay the incentive for oil companies to produce cleaner fuels.”
Strange, I haven’t heard of any “low-carbon” gasoline in the works. Must be new.
Eco freaks have a different definition of low carbon. If they can fake the accounting of a bio source or electrical source to show that the energy is ” renewable” is is considered low carbon. Natural gas is not renewable, and therefore bad – even though the earth generates an almost countless amount of NG every year.
Ernest Callenbach grins from the great beyond. While certainly, the totality of Ecotopia has not (yet) occurred, significant elements of what was described (over 35 years ago) have been put into place. The concept is being given a hearing on a vast scale (mostly as a result of sloth and lack of understanding of the true nature of environmental issues by the general public). Future historians will have much to say about our experiences and outcomes.
How is paying more for gas doing ‘environmental good’ ??
Soon rice farmers will get in on the fun.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/article5151954.html
Anyone with common sense can see that it is about money. Politicians think it is just fine to tax tax tax so they can spend spend spend. They do not care who actually pays the tax and who it hurts. Enviro-kooks think its a great way to control the use of fuels….and of course they always have an alternative they want money for (solyndra for example). Nobody really thinks this will “protect the environment”….but they do think it will protect their own bottom line and “punish the rich guy”. Too bad the “rich guy” is the trucker or plumber or carpenter or farmer that works 50-60 hours a week just to feed his family.
So carbon emission that is lower than those from natural rainforest like the Amazon (see carbon satellite images) – needs to be further reduced?
Wouldn’t it more effectively reduce carbon emissions to “pave the forests and put up a parking lot”?
Right before the elections in November, the Lt. Governor Anthony Brown, who was running for Governor, actually said that because Maryland had raised gas taxes the last 4 years, it lowered the price of gas! One cannot argue with a dolt. He then lost the election to the Republican. Here in Maryland, we should now have 4 years gridlock, we can only hope.
Bwah ha ha! CA suckers. Oh yeah, you’re going to cure that drought and make it rain via this tax and also make the planet much much better and safer from weather. Dolts.
It’s ironic that people want to move to California because of the nice warm weather. Policies like this make it economically stupid to work or operate a business in California yet millions of people continue to do both because of its warm climate. If North Dakota tried to raise taxes to California levels, it would rapidly depopulate.
Climate morons, who hate oil, think that high gas prices are fine and dandy; the higher, the better in fact. This is not because they can neccesarily afford the higher prices. There is a disconnect between their cherished, idiotic Belief system, and the effect that Belief system has on their own economic well-being.
Californian here. It’s not working, gridlock on the freeways is worse than ever. Cali’s are addicted to cars, and they’re getting more and more agressive out there. If you don’t ride the bumper of the guy in front of you, horn-blowing and passing, regardless of the double yellow lines ensues. It gets more insane every month. Yes, we bought a home elsewhere and soon we’ll move out of this madness, but no, we do not want to bring CA idiocy with us, quite the opposite. I dunno who the nuts are voting these freaks into office in this state, but I ain’t one of them. All I can tell you is that many, many of the Californians I know are really ignorant people, and they don’t have a clue about reality, only know what they see in the media and on their smartphones. It’s sad what we’ve become in this wasteland of a state.
It appears from talk around many and various blogs, that due to their beliefs and political stances- altogether a type of altered or misperceived reality- that Californians have become virtual pariahs, to many in the rest of the country. This seems to be a reaction based on the apprehension that they might try to alter us, to be like them.
Sadly as a group we do force our views on others. It has become so expensive in CA that we leave for cheaper places and then when we get there, start voting for all the nice social services, and environmental regulations, and restrictions on evil businesses, that we all felt good about back in CA, not realizing these stupid policies are what made the cost of living go up in the first place. Nevada is becoming much more liberal, as an example, mostly from fleeing Californians voting in leftist politicians in NV.
Part of the problem with California is that Smart Prople (such as yourself) are leaving it. This creates the situation where the per capita intelligence takes a severe drop and so the only remaining votes are idiotic in nature
The Air Resources Board must be made up of comedians; the state has a plan to ease climate change? I wonder if the medical marijuana office is next door to the Air Resources Board. Donating a can of beans would do more for world hunger than their plan will do for climate change.
It is not so funny how eco-fundamentalists do not recognize themselves as plutocrats when they without apology hurt low-income families.
What is painfully transparent is that California needs to increase their tax revenue and saying “We need to raise taxes” is not as sexy as saying “Climate change” to do so.
Interesting (and beneficial) timing… Gas prices are the lowest they’ve been in a few years and now they are going to get bumped higher from this cap-and-trade tax.
Couldn’t be happening to a better state. Keep penalizing earners, re-electing governor moonbeam and wondering why it keeps going sideways. Perfect.
It might be just as you say
As elected we’ll all have to pay
either at the pump
or down at the dump
we’ll be living the effluent way
I am very amazed by the information of this blog and i am glad i had a look over the blog. thank you so much for sharing such and great information about limo service.
Hey it’s a robber baron, despotic state what do you expect?