Gov. Gavin Newsom Wants Mandate for Oil Companies to Create Stockpile of Gasoline
The petroleum industry has pushed back, saying the mandate would hurt consumers.
Legal Insurrection readers may recall my report about Chevron’s California operations.
Chevron had been headquartered in California for over 140 years, giving it strong roots in this state. However, the toxic policies of California’s lawmakers and regulators have killed those roots.
The fossil fuel giant will relocate to Texas.
Sacramento sees gasoline firms and petroleum refineries as cash cows that will always agree to be milked despite being made into a climate villain and accused of corporate greed.
So, to resolve the state’s serious energy challenges, California Gov. Gavin Newsom called for a special session Saturday after the Assembly rebuffed his efforts to pass an energy package before a critical deadline passed.
Newsom’s plan mandates that the state’s oil companies create gasoline stockpiles.
California Governor Gavin Newsom plans to propose legislation requiring oil companies in the most-populous US state to amass stockpiles of gasoline and other fuels to prevent supply shortages and price spikes during refinery outages.
Such reserves would shield Californians who already pay some of the highest pump prices in the nation from the sort of run-ups seen in 2022 and 2023, said Tai Milder, a Newsom appointee who leads the state’s Division of Petroleum Market Oversight. If such a measure had been in place, it would have saved consumers as much as $650 million last year alone, he said.
The governor’s plan signals an intensification of Newsom’s long-running battle against the fossil-fuel industry and comes less than two weeks after Chevron Corp. announced plans to shift corporate headquarters to Texas after 145 years in the Golden State. In recent years, retail gasoline prices in the state surged to $6 a gallon, spikes the Newsom administration blamed on a shortage of backup supplies when refiners reduced operations to perform repairs.
“Price spikes at the pump are profit spikes for Big Oil,” Newsom said in an email. “Refiners should be required to plan ahead and backfill supplies to keep prices stable, instead of playing games to earn even more profits. By making refiners act responsibly and maintain a gas reserve, Californians would save money at the pump every year.”
Inflation is hurting the average Californian. However, gasoline is still a good value for money, especially compared to the inflation rate for food.
Compared to September, fuel price inflation is broadly unchanged for 2023, but lowered from 5.8% to 3.2% in 2024. Our food price inflation forecast for 2023 remains high at 10.6%. The forecast for 2024 is slightly higher at 5.5%. pic.twitter.com/35KQTDHtUK
— BILALSTECH (@BILALS_TECH) November 23, 2023
Newsom’s proposals will likely do nothing more than drive the closure of even more refineries and firms that support the fossil fuel industry. That may be his objective, but unless a lot more of those Generation IV nuclear reactors start appearing or lithium battery fires stop erupting, it is going to be increasingly difficult to sustain the California lifestyle that Democrats from this state tout.
The petroleum industry has pushed back, saying the mandate would hurt consumers.
The Western States Petroleum Association said the bill would punish refiners into withholding supplies and hurting consumers.
“Governor Newsom’s refinery supply mandate will create artificial shortages of fuel in California, Arizona, and Nevada by forcing refiners to withhold fuels from the market. Lawmakers who vote for this mandate will be voting to increase gas costs for their constituents,” said Catherine Reheis-Boyd, CEO of the Western States Petroleum Association.
If Newsom and the state legislature did anything to help consumers, it was surely purely coincidental.
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Governor Newsom should only have regulatory domain over how much gasoline is in his own gas tank and no further.
It’s funny how progressive governments that seek to regulate everything under the sun such that businesses are forced to relocate outside of their jurisdiction are simultaneously the ones calling their opponents fascists.
Progressives leave nothing to chance. They always tell you what they are going to do before they do it, even if their plan is unconstitutional or hurtful.
Newsom’s proposed legislation is not a laughing matter. Mandates originated with COVID-19 lockdowns and touched nearly every aspect of people’s lives in blue states. They worked in the respect they were a show of power over the people. They got away with it then, and they will most likely get away with this new oil company mandate now.
What could happen? Oil companies eventually stop selling gasoline altogether, which might be the bourgeois endgame anyways–an end to fossil fuels in California.
PA has the highest per-gallon gas tax in the country. I think it’s around $.60. California has the 2nd highest. But, the average gas price (at the pump) in PA is still considerably less (more than $1 /gallon less) in PA than it is in CA. Why? Regulation. The biggest driver of CA’s outrageous pump prices is oppressive state regulation on the gas/diesel industry. So, what’s Newsom going to do? Put those regulations on steroids by mandating minimum wholesale inventories.
Just rent gasoline to consumers instead of selling it and you instantly have a strategic gasoline inventory in everybody’s car.
CA forces the highest taxes on gas in the nation, approx. $1.50 per gallon goes to taxes. CA has also refused to permit construction of new refineries in the state over the years as the state population has increased by millions of residents. CA also requires its own unique “blend” of gasoline not produced in other states, which makes it impossible for CA gas stations to sell gasoline from other states where it is cheaper.
Then Dems in CA blame Big Oil for price spikes in gasoline?
Blends plural. Many blends.
CA gov newscum has actually said that high gas prices are “good” because that encourages people to take public transport and buy EVs.
That’s what they really believe, but they only say it when talking to their envirowhacko buddies.
Publicly, they take actions that they can claim are to punish those evil profiteer oil and gas companies for their evil profiteering, but do nothing but exacerbate the problem and cause prices to rise ever higher.
Win/win for him. On the campaign trail he can claim he’s helping the little people by punishing those evil oil companies while he’s actually achieving his goal of higher prices for consumers.
And it’s ultimately about privilege. The rich and “elite” don’t like the fact that we poor people have so much freedom and such wealth that we can live almost as well as they can. They really, really want to make our lives worse so they can celebrate the fact that they can still afford to drive their cars and jet-set around the world, and eat steak and lobster while the rest of us are forced into cattle cars, have to live our entire lives within the confines of our 15 minute cities and can only afford to eat bug burgers.
Over $1.20 per gallon taxes paid on every gallon of gas in CA. That number goes higher with city taxes.
Gas taxes are regressive tax on working americans, who can’t work from home on their laptop.
I wouldn’t put anything past the despicable and loathsome, Gov. Newsom. Watch what happens when the oil companies don’t play ball with the Governor– he makes a move to “nationalize” or “socialize” oil companies’ distribution and reserves within his state.
The real supply problem in California is there is not financial incentive to build more refineries.
California is without any hope of turning itself around.
Yep I posted that in comment that mods wont display?
That’s what I thought. Stockpiles of raw materials is all well and good, but when you have only a handful of refineries to process said materials into a usable product, you’re only rearranging deck chairs on a sinking ship.
dems: how can we siphon off other peoples prosperity?
patriots: how can we continue to encourage more prosperity!
and ca doesnt allow the building of new gas stations and leads the way into the money shift from the do-ers to the complainers
Which gas does the CA Gov want to stockpile? The “summer blend”, or the “winter blend”? Or perhaps both? In all grades?
Yeah, this won’t be costly at all…
Yep I posted comment about CA unique gas “blend” which makes it impossible for CA gas stations to sell gas from other states, a regulation forced by sacramento that adds to supply constraints. But mods won’t display it?
And worse, you can’t just “bank” gas, it goes stale. You have to rotate it and sell off the old stuff. This isn’t just a one=and-done mandate, it’s an ongoing expensive maintenance headache.
Someone should tell Newsom that requiring mass construction of storage facilities for holding unnecessary inventory will require major capital expense and cause higher prices than otherwise.
Also, per Google, “gasoline prices are determined by the global market, especially the price of crude oil”. In other words, the price of the crude oil going into the refinery largely determines the price of the gasoline coming out. Biden using the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a similar manner has had exactly what lasting effect? Trump’s policy while in office of “drill baby drill” was vastly more effective (and kept Iran broke).
Don’t forget biden selling SPR to china!
Yup, was my first thought.
“Wants Mandate for Oil Companies to Create Stockpile of Gasoline”
You mean, like the one we had before your pal Biden sold it off to China?
Th vile Dhimmi-crat apparatchiks do this stuff either intentionally, or, witlessly, depending upon the intelligence of the apparatchik involved.
To wit, first creating a problem through ill-conceived and corrosive diktats and schemes, and then, strolling along to proffer the alleged, magical government “solution” to that very same problem.
What a hustle.
Why is greasy Newsolini concerned about gasoline prices, anyway — isn’t he forcing all California drivers to buy EV’s, by a certain future date?
Last new “refinery” construction permitted in CA was in 2021 for tiny amount of production of pitch tar used for filling potholes, not for gasoline. Before that you have to go back to 1982 before state of CA permitted new construction of refinery for gasoline. While the CA population has increased from 25 million to 39 million since 1982. There will be no new refinery construction permitted in state of CA under dem super majority one party rule. Newsom isn’t going to move the needle much with his “stockpiling” policy scheme.
Idaho ought to build 1000 refineries and pipe it to Ca/Or/Wa. and tax the snot out of it before it gets there.
Dear Gov. Newsome,
We wish to thank you for thinking of our company and for your help with planning our domestic refinery strategy and reserves capabilities. We have decided to locate our reserve stockpiles in Texas, and you can buy what you need from Texas locations. All the best and warn regards, Chevron
Kamala wants power stations to create a stockpile of electrons to recharge EVs.
“Bidenflation Hits Internet”
(Film tomorrow in our print edition)
California is such a resource rich state, but it has idiot envirozealots mismanaging the place.
Property that everybody owns, nobody treats responsibly.
A strategic stockpile, you say? You mean like a Strategic Petroleum Reserve? You know, like the one the Dems regularly shrink below sustainable levels in order to try and buy votes?
Or the emergency gasoline reserve in the Northeast (1 million barrels) that the the dems just drained and closed?
California – bringing Atlas Shrugged to life every legislative session.
Newsom is a moron and a poseur. He doesn’t understand basic economics.
He’s slick packaging, but there’s nothing inside of substance.
Just when I thought he couldn’t get any stupider. He gets stupider.
Newsom’s hair provides a pretty robust stockpile of oil. The question is whether he would allow anyone to drain his head in an emergency.
How many more reasons are we going to need before we frack Newsom’s head?
LOL.
Biden had his head fracked … twice! and look how that helped his career!
Me, my wife, and sons are California natives that left in 96 due to my business moved me to the east coast. We still have family in all parts of the state.
Now that Chevron is gone I am not sure what oil company is left still being HQ’ed in California. The state has for decades had oil companies change how they make car gas in certain times and areas. The state also regulates other types of fuel.
If the state continues on making oil companies to provide fuel storage then they will have to give details. This could also lead to the oil companies to give up on California depending if the state will provide the costs or not.
The petroleum industry has pushed back, saying the mandate would hurt consumers.
They say that like Newsom would consider it a bad thing.
Every gas company should leave and take out their pipelines as they do so. Cali want’s non polluting cars and trucks, give it to them……give it really hard.
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