Audrey Streb
DCNF Energy Reporter
Democrat policies and new regulations hiked California’s gas prices on Tuesday, and a slew of green energy initiatives has led to refinery closures and lofty gas prices in the Golden State that may soon spiral into a full-blown crisis.
California is teetering on the brink of a gas crisis due primarily to Democrats’ green energy policies, as multiple major refineries prepare to shutter in the coming years and more stringent regulations on the oil and gas industries take effect. Democratic leadership and regulators enacted adjustments to California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) program on Tuesday, resulting in a gas price increase that may be the beginning of further pain at the pump for the state’s consumers.
“Not every Californian is a millionaire like our governor is … and these regulations are bearing down on the average Californian and making California unaffordable,” Republican California Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “I’m addressing the cost of gasoline in California and trying to do everything I can to repeal the regulations that are causing it to go up, while at the same time alerting Californians of the impending cost of gasoline.” (RELATED: California Democrats Rail Against Energy Regulations They Unleashed As Gas Crisis Looms)
I just filed a public records request to expose how Newsom’s deceptive 65-cent gas price hike was crafted in secret.
We believe the real goal is to jack up gas prices so high that Californians are forced to buy EVs.
The public deserves the truth. #FixCalifornia pic.twitter.com/UVpzs1Qt7k
— Brian W. Jones (@SenBrianJones) May 21, 2025
California has the highest tax on gasoline in the nation, and its cap-and-trade program for emissions has also been connected to high energy prices in the state. The combination of these stringent regulations and the forthcoming closures of the Phillips 66 and Valero refineries in the state could result in gas shooting up to $8 per gallon as soon as 2026, according to one study from the University of Southern California.
Moreover, state regulators have suggested increasing state involvement in refinery management, including the possibility of what critics have derided as state-owned refineries to address the possible surge in gas prices.
Though gas prices have been hitting a four-year low across the U.S. ahead of Independence Day, Californians paid an average of about $4.57 per gallon as of Thursday, about $1.40 more than the national average, according to AAA gas price data. Prices increased in California by a few cents on Tuesday as adjustments to the state’s LCFS came into effect.
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom set a goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2045, and he has fought to enact numerous green energy initiatives in his state, including an aggressive electric vehicle (EV) agenda.
California regulators planned to ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles in the state and numerous others by 2035 before President Donald Trump signed Congressional resolutions to block the de facto EV mandate. California and ten other Democrat-led states immediately sued the Trump administration after the president terminated the Golden State’s de facto national EV mandate.
“The founding fathers would be rolling over in their graves if they ever thought the government would be in the business of dictating the type of transportation that Americans can choose,” Tom Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research (IER) told the DCNF previously about California’s EV mandate. “The public is behind President Trump and the effort to preserve our ability to choose the types of cars that best suit our needs as consumers.”
Jones suspects the possible gas crisis is part of a broader effort by some Democrats to steer consumers to ditch conventional cars, noting that his office filled out a records request for emails between Newsom’s administration and the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
“The goal here is to show by their communications that they are purposefully trying to drive up the price of gasoline so that people are forced into EVs, public transportation or bicycles,” Jones told the DCNF.
The records request Jones filed has gone unanswered, the lawmaker told the DCNF, who noted that he has demanded an audit on the LCFS to find out if CARB comprehensively estimated the policy’s economic impacts or “concealed or downplayed costs.” CARB and Newsom’s office did not confirm to the DCNF whether or not they responded to the records request, though Newsom’s office referred the DCNF to several press releases that address some of Jones’ claims and noted that gas prices in the state are at a three-year low for July.
CARB initially cited estimates that the amendments to the LCFS could spike gas prices by 47 cents per gallon in 2024, according to multiple reports. The agency later walked back that projection in June, citing estimations that prices may only experience a per gallon hike of only five or six cents.
Newsom’s office also recently released a statement referencing a gasoline cost increase projection of eight cents per gallon. Jones described this shift in estimates as a “defensive scramble,” and cited a different estimate forecasting that the regulation shift could spike gasoline prices by as much as 65 cents per gallon in the near term. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: ‘A Lot Of Government Coercion’: Study Slams ‘Forced Transition’ To EVs Consumers Don’t Seem To Want)
Jones argued that if California Democrats plan to drive up fuel costs to force consumers to adopt EVs or ditch gasoline vehicles, it would be impossible to implement anyways. The state’s electrical grid is increasingly reliant on green energy technology, and “wind and solar is not going to cut it here in California,” Jones said. Building more EV infrastructure and charging the EVs would take power the state does not have, Jones argued.
“I’m focused on raising awareness and holding Governor Newsom, legislative Democrats, and unelected bureaucrats accountable for these costly and ineffective policies,” Jones said, railing against “unelected” regulators that have implemented strict energy policies that may necessitate a net-zero transition. “They’re out of control.”
Notably, California imports mass amounts of oil despite being “a very oil rich state,” Jones said. “We have plenty of oil in the ground, we just need to extract it,” he continued.
Citing the over 40,000 signatures on his petition to repeal the recent regulation change, Jones argued that he is witnessing an ideological shift in California.
“After Republicans and the media exposed the truth, Californians were outraged … [and they] are waking up. They’re starting to see that the reason for sky-high gas prices is irresponsible policies pushed by the majority party,” Jones said, referencing Newsom’s policies that seem to be driving up gas prices for the sake of “arbitrary climate targets.”
CARB did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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The mystery to those of us this side of the pond, is why do Californian residents continue to vote for these political leaders who only want to destroy California’s economy?
Clearly the number of significant businesses leaving the State, along with individuals leaving because they can no longer live with the policies being progressed, would suggest it is no secret California is under the control of despots and madmen/women.
Same reason as Sadiq Khan keeps getting elected Mayor of London?
What? have you got Tower Hamlet 105% voter turnout to vote there too?
Illinois has been managing that for years.
Vote rigging is vote rigging, no matter which side of the pond you’re on. And in California they’ve elevated it to an art form.
Election month in California is now normal, ensuring that ballot custody cannot be guaranteed.
Who knew a Chinese lab virus could cause political insanity?
Stupid is who stupid does, might have been a good idea afterwards having left that turf to the mexicans but…that’s my sarcastic comment from the other side of the pond where the same stupidity rules (and get’s voted)
Did you see the stuff about Mexicans in Mexico rioting about American visitors 😉
Mexico City devolves into chaos as citizens protest influx of migrants | Sky News Australia
Irony, satire.. or just plain hilarious !! 😉
The problem is that the number of takers exceeds the number of makers.
That, the number of people who believe that they have a right to be supported by others, exceeds the number of people who actually work to make stuff.
The solution to this problem is no representation without taxation. Only net tax payers should be allowed to vote.
Citizen taxpayers.
The Constitution originally granted voting to people who owned property. The idea was, those with money were the stake holders. There were things back then that are not acceptable today, such as women suffrage and many others. The country has evolved, but giving the vote to people who have not bothered to become citizens and those that are here illegally just degrades the whole country.
Most taxes were land based back then.
That is indeed part of it.
One of the problems I see with that is that everyone pays taxes of some kind, sales tax being prevalent almost everywhere. Refine your solution to saying “no representation without federal and/or state taxation” would go a long way toward fixing that.
Sales taxes are regressive taxes that all democrats love to raise. It’s for your own good.
Of course, when you call sales taxes tariffs, which is what all tariffs actually are, then all democrats hate them because they are unfair to the poor.
The voters vote themselves free stuff.
Bread and circuses are always popular.
Yeah – I mean, look at us in the UK, where our energy policies are controlled by the mega-mind-in-chief, super-hero, are-you-Reddy-Eddy!
Many counties in California, notably Los Angeles county, have more registered voters than residents eligible to vote, QED.
Some of that has been cleaned up thanks to lawsuits by Judicial Watch.
Right and remember when you hear about election fraud that it was developed and perfected in California.
California is engaged in assisted mass suicide. They’re Jim Jonesing themselves. More kool-aid please.
Looks like petrol in California is still a bit cheaper than in the UK, but it’s getting there.
At $4.6/US gallon that equates to $1.21/litre. (I US gallon = 3.78 litres) or in £Sterling terms £0.90/litre.
I am currently paying £1.40/litre for diesel here in the UK or $1.90/litre in US currency.
Congratulations you win!
The difference goes in tax in the UK, and VAT etc on top!. Crazy. They don’t even spend the money on roads, which are in a terrible state.
There are substantial taxes on gasoline and diesel in CA.
As my California old ranching Grandpa used to say, ‘Chickens are coming home to Roost.’ By which he politely meant but never said, coming home to shit all over their former roost without their farmer then helping clean it up, since they had left before without permission.
re: “Gas Crisis Looms Over California As Dems Continue To Impose Crippling Regs”
But – but – they VOTE for this repeatedly, time and time again, so its ‘okay’ – amIright?
I cannot fathom why anyone rational would take this course, but here it is before our very eyes. Must be a ‘mania’ involved, something very elementary that attacks the rational elements in their collective psyches (their psychological frame of mind).
I cannot fathom why anyone rational would take this course,
They don’t. Think ballot harvesting, mail-in ballots, illegal aliens being allowed to vote, no voter ID, vote counting for weeks past election day deadlines etc. As I noted above, vote rigging is vote rigging,.. And in California they’ve elevated it to an art form.
Yep. As Joe Stalin is supposed to have said, “What matters is not how the people vote, but who counts the votes.”
Rationality.
A fast-disappearing trait.
If you think the gas crisis is bad, just wait until you see the electricity crisis once everyone is forced into EVs.
and electric heat, electric water heaters, electric stoves.
And fires. Whatever one assumes is the spontaneous combustion failure rate, multiply that by whatever increase in number.
There could be a housing boom in CA. Of course the landfills will be filled first with the detritus of the burnt homes, collapsed WTG and SV junk.
Green energy initiatives.
In accounting black is good and red is bad, so should these be Black energy initiatives?
CO2 helps plants grow and the planet is greening. Take away the CO2 and these become Brown energy initiatives.
The vast tracts of land destroyed with these obscenities also takes the green out of the expression.
Maybe not Black energy initiatives. Maybe it should be RED energy initiatives.
With the crime, drugs, prostitution, etc., in the streets these days due to overloading the cities with illegal aliens, one would be insane to transport by scooter or bicycle or even motorcycle.
California is slowly becoming unlivable for working people. It has the highest cost of living in the USA, no usable mass transit to urban home sites so cars are the de facto transportation, and housing built far from city/business centers due to cost of land. It welcomes non workers with welfare money that often exceeds what they can make at jobs and they keep increasing the ‘free’ money allotted. A recipe for disaster as gasoline prices rise. Forcing people into Marxist “15 minute cities” even though the huge population can’t be accommodated is the goal. California is on the road to eating itself.
> Valero’s Benicia refinery produces aviation (jet) fuel which services, via pipelines, both the San Francisco International Airport (SFO), Oakland International Airport (OAK) and Sacramento International Airport (SMF)
Imagine the logistics of supplying those airports (and Travis AFB) with tanker trucks.
With EV tanker trucks.
Imagine the spectacle if a battery flames in a jet fuel tanker truck.
The big black storm clouds of CARB are about to slam neighboring states that lack refineries. Dems are on alert to ignore it or blame others when it gets bad.
California is a real embarrassment. Do these people have to hit rock bottom before they do something about the abuse they are taking from their government?
Yes
Do these people have to hit rock bottom
It’s California. They’ll pull out a jack hammer and start digging.
California is never going to change. The Federal government is going to have to step in and use the Commerce Clause of the Constitution to force California to reduce fuel taxes and regs,