Some Californians Are Paying $5 For A Gallon Of Gas, Which Could Mean Trouble For 2020 Democrats, Candidate Says
Audrey Conklin Reporter
October 08, 2019 6:39 PM ET
- Gas prices in California have soared to $5 in some areas, according to the Oil Price Information Service.
- Republican candidate for California’s 50th Congressional District Carl DeMaio told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the price increase is due to “taxes, mandates and regulations” imposed by Democrats.
- DeMaio added the burden of expensive fuel will “absolutely” have an impact on the next elections.
The average price of gas per gallon in California has skyrocketed to its highest level in five years, according to the Oil Price Information Service.
The average cost in the state soared to $4.18 while drivers in other areas are paying as much as $5 per gallon, CNN Business reported Tuesday, which could mean bad news for Democratic politicians vying for more regulations and higher taxes, Republican candidate for California’s 50th Congressional District Carl DeMaio told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
CNN Business pointed to refinery outages as the reason for the inflated prices. California has 15 oil refineries while the entire U.S. has a total of 135, according to the California Energy Commission and the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
But DeMaio told the DCNF that California Democrats and their policies taxes are to blame for the rising prices.
“That’s what Democrats like to blame,” DeMaio said. “‘Oh, it’s the industry. It’s the market. We had nothing to do with it.’ Spare me, you arsonist firefighter. You created the problem with your taxes, mandates and regulations. And now you come along saying, ‘It’s not our problem. It’s the private sector’s problem.’ This is how they escape responsibility for the problem.”
DeMaio added California’s increasing regulations and gas prices will “absolutely” have an impact on Democrats in the next elections, adding that Republicans could have saved seats in the state in 2018 had they made these issues the central focuses of their campaigns, but “they’re too ignorant to actually see the opportunity in front of them.”
𝗚𝗔𝗦 𝗧𝗔𝗫 𝗙𝗥𝗔𝗨𝗗! I led fight to repeal #GasTaxHikes in 2018 b/c we all knew this would happen. Gov. Newsom signed order cancelling road projects & diverting gas tax money to “climate change” projects. I’m working on new #GasTaxRepeal. Stay tuned: https://t.co/DD7iHEiXFB
— Carl DeMaio (@carldemaio) October 8, 2019
Mandates and fees imposed by Democrats “add about $1.50 to every gallon of gas,” DeMaio, chairman for Reform California, which campaigns against tax increases, told the DCNF. He added later that California Republicans “have allowed [Democrats] to get off scot-free on this issue.”
Sales tax on gas in California increases as the underlying price of fuel increases. The state’s latest gas tax, which went into effect on July 1 and moved California to the No. 1 position for highest fuel prices in 2019, aims to produce $50 billion for transportation projects over the next 10 years, KCAL 9 reported. DeMaio is trying to repeal the gas tax.
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order in September that will redirect the funds produced from the gas tax from roads and highways to railway systems.
Republican California Assemblyman Jim Patterson called a “theft of funds,” the California Globe reported.
DeMaio emphasized this point, saying the gas tax will keep increasing the cap-and-trade regulations that will, in turn, keep increasing the price of gas, and “none of those funds goes to roads.”
“They all go to their fetish for climate change and transit and bike paths and high-speed rail trains to nowhere,” he told the DCNF.
“This is a big regressive tax,” he added. “It’s a regressive cost of living that affects the working poor the most. Your limousine liberals from the Bay Area don’t worry about it. They have more than enough money to pay for the higher gas prices. They drive around in hundred-thousand-dollar electric cars.”
“It’s working families who are disproportionately hurt by the higher gas prices,” DeMaio continued. (RELATED: Here’s Why Californians Pay Way More For Gasoline Than Everyone Else)
California also produces the majority of its own fuel in accommodation with the state’s strict environmental rules, which include formulas specific to the state that are designed to reduce pollution. The formulas are also designed to change with the seasons to slow down evaporation, according to the California Air Resources Board.
As a result, when California refineries experience problems, the state is slow to replace lost production, the Los Angeles Times reported on April 10, citing Automobile Club of Southern California spokeswoman Marie Montgomery.
“It’s the regulations, the taxes, mandates and fees — all of those things combined — [increase gas prices by] $1 to $1.50 depending upon what point of the year you’re in. And when you take a look at that and say, ‘Oh, the reason why we have all these regulations is [because] it will improve air quality,’ I don’t think based on today’s technology that is anywhere near a credible statement,” DeMaio told the DCNF.
“If you take a look at what Democrats are doing on water policy and choking off the supply of water from places like Central Valley — the worst impact to air quality today is the dust that’s kicked up in Central Valley because we’re not allowing farmers access to water to keep their fields compact, and so nobody seems to be addressing why we have these regulations,” he concluded.
Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.com, said in a Tuesday tweet that he expects the state’s gas prices to fall soon.
In woe-derful california, gas is over $4 a gallon because
(1) California imports its oil from Saudia Arabia (instead of drilling for our own) and we know what happens in Saudi Arabia doesn’t stay in Saudia Arabia.
(2) Four refineries that rely on Saudi oil are down for “unscheduled” maintenance
(3) California is having to import gas from other fly-over states to meet demand
But don’t worry, prices will drop by Thanksgiving when they go back up because of increased Thanksgiving driving, but be assured they’ll go back down again before Christmas when they go back up again because of increased holiday driving, but rest easy they’ll go back down again until Spring break when they go back up again because of increased spring break driving, but reset easy they’ll go down again till June when California raises excise taxes on gasoline again to new heights!
And all those gasoline taxes, in Gov Newsom’s wisdom , he’s not gonna spend it on roads, he’s gonna spend it to keep the Crazy Train alive!
So California keep ahold of your ankles and keep smiling 🙂
I was just reading more about this planned power outage, and it became clear that this is not a one off event, but is instead the plan going forward for dealing with weather conditions that occur regularly, multiple times per year, over a large portion of the most populous state in the country.
In other words, they will be doing this whenever fire weather conditions will be present, seemingly from now on.
When Santa Ana conditions occur in the highly populated parts of the state, it seems they will be cutting off power for the duration.
I suspect, but am not yet sure, that the consequences of this policy will prove catastrophic, potentially far worse than an occasional fire in some typically remote location.
And it will not prevent any but a small subset of fires.
At the same time, it will be hugely disruptive to millions of peoples lives, and so when fires do occur, which they inevitably will, they will occur in conjunction with people who have had their power cut off and presumably much if not all means of communication also cut of, curtailed and disrupted.
I am all but certain this will be completely intolerable, as well as perhaps being even more dangerous than fires by themselves.
Again, these conditions can persist for long periods of time and extend throughout much of the entire state and do so regularly and persistently.
Are they really going to just cut off the electricity from now on, any and everyplace fire weather (high wind, low humidity, dry soil and low vegetation moisture lelvels0 occurs in the state of California…forever?
What is the plan to fix this?
Or is this the fix?
I expect that what will happen is that the utility is granted an exemption from the lawsuits that have necessitated this policy.
Those of us who live where power has been cut off due to storms knocking out power lines and other power transmission and distribution infrastructure know how incredibly disruptive and awful it is not to have power.
We simply can not do without it and proceed with our lives as if it is not happening.
In the mean time, I am looking at the stock price of the companies that manufacture, sell, and install home generators. they typically spike when large hurricanes and ice storms cause or are expected to cause widespread outages…but this is different.
This appears to be a long term plan for a state with 65,000,000 people whenever a common weather condition arises. That is a lot of people who will be absolutely desperate for power in their homes and businesses.
This is a big story, and is not getting much attention…yet.
In fact, this could wind up being the biggest political hot potato in a very long time, and could cause a realignment of political power in a state with a huge Democratic congressional representation.
Am I making more of this than it really is?
Bad things happen when power is cut, including an occasional and severe riot.
Do I feel sorry for the electric car users?
In the uk, most electricity is delivered by underground cables. Overhead cables are used to feed power to very small numbers of houses located in the countryside.
Yes, I underground is more expensive but much more reliable.
The ecological / environmental disturbance is MUCH greater when installing underground cables and equipment compared to overhead lines (as long as there are no fires caused by overhead lines.) Repairs and maintenance costs much more / takes longer when issues arise on underground cables. All high voltage underground equipment can only be worked on under an outage while overhead wires can be worked on while they are energized; keeping continuous service to customers. All customers would have to retrofit their electrical panels to receive an underground service instead of an overhead service. Who would pay for all of this? The solution for now would be to do planned outages when weather events come up until all lines are cleared of overgrowth and dead fall. Arc flashes happen every day due to balloons, large birds of prey, vehicle accidents, and weather events.
Apples & oranges in many respects — UK (or Europe) isn’t America. Far greater distances to cover. Faults/problems are much easier to locate (visually) than when underground, and easier to repair/reset.
There are also engineering as well as cost issues.
Overhead lines are air insulted and cooled.
Lines in conduits must be insulated.
My understanding is that it would be hugely expensive and challenging to bury all the power infrastructure in the US.
The majority of voters in California do not care about paying more taxes or the state wasting their money on climate change and a high speed rail system connecting Bakersfield and Fresno because they keep re electing the democrats who keep wasting their money and increasing their taxes.
Maybe it’s the non-citizen voters, homeless voters, and other welfare voters that live off the free handouts who keep voting in the Dems.
That’s millions of votes for free stuff (paid for by the working population).
Of course $5 gas is just phase one of the multi-phase approach of liberal plans. They all know to phase them in limit full backlash from the otherwise controlled commoners. Media consultants can better handle the situation in explaining it too with distractions and bambi pictures and their favorite photo tactic of evil tailpipes.
More fun in California…..
https://finance.yahoo.com/m/fbbb4624-2dfa-3a91-8712-0bb139187d2e/pg%26e%27s-stock-dives-in-active.html
“Spare me, you arsonist firefighter.”
Great analogy about Democrats. I’ll use this in the future.
Create the conditions that caused the calamity, then claim to be the solution when the public cries out for help.
Same thing for the PG&E power outages. Climate Change policy crippled PG&E over the years to reduce investments in transmission infrastructure maintenance to pay for renewable energy investments. They create the climate that then brings problems as the problem build up until eventually during a dry season wind storm you get a catastrophic fire.
The real threat we face is from the Democrat’s Climate Change policies.
Yellow vests have gone to the streets in France because of fuel prices. Voters do generally know that its taxes and those who rule us that are responsible for high prices but most are just too sluggish to do anything but complaining at family dinner. Up to a point. When it gets hard to hold whatever standard one is used to, people start to wake up.
The price of top tier gasoline in Spokane during the first weekend of this month was $2.85/gallon.
Without trying, found Regular at $2.19/gal today in Plano,er Tx.
That’s the smallest logistic problem in California, Gilets jaunes, yellow vests in silicon Valley:
https://www.sfgate.com/living/article/Why-we-re-invisible-to-Google-bus-riders-4467574.php
https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-huawei&biw=360&bih=518&sxsrf=ACYBGNSCDrQfhi-wxzJevbfTy8t-MKPuxA%3A1571310346167&ei=CkuoXYTnCaCGk74PgOKZ0AY&q=silicon+Valley+Public+transports+hindered+by+high+tech+employees+transports&oq=silicon+Valley+Public+transports+hindered+by+high+tech+employees+transports&gs_l=mobile-gws-wiz-serp.