With fuel costs in some elements of California reaching $5.94 per gallon as of Thursday — $2.50 greater than the nationwide common — Gov. Newsom is concentrating on Massive Oil once more in a brand new proposal that corporations are calling a “political attack on consumers and our industry.”
Newsom is directing the California Power Fee to require corporations to maintain a minimal inventory of gasoline stock after a watchdog division discovered that as provides drop when refineries shut down for upkeep, costs and firm earnings improve.
- Newsom, in an announcement: “Price spikes at the pump are profit spikes for Big Oil. Refiners should be required to plan ahead … instead of playing games to earn even more profits.”
The fee may impose fines for corporations that don’t draft resupply plans or keep sufficient gasoline stock. The governor estimates that if this rule had been in place final yr, Californians would have saved no less than $650 million on the pump.
However Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president and chief government officers of the Western States Petroleum Affiliation, says Newsom’s plan reveals “an utter lack of understanding about our industry” and that to impose new operational guidelines based mostly on “such falsehoods is regulatory malpractice.”
The proposal additionally received’t make pump costs go down any time quickly, since it is going to should be negotiated with the Legislature first. The power fee will then embark on a proper rulemaking course of involving public suggestions to iron out the small print. This will take a number of months, although a fee spokesperson stated it’s “committed to working as quickly as possible to put the rules in place to help protect consumers from price spikes.”
Talking of oil corporations: A 2022 legislation on the place oil and fuel wells can go has not been carried out but. And it might be delayed so long as 4 extra years because of a last-minute invoicewrites CalMatters environmental reporter Julie Cart.
The legislation bans new oil drilling inside 3,200 ft of residential areas, and requires security measures at current wells, together with leak detection. After it handed, oil corporations poured tens of millions right into a poll measure to overturn it, basically blocking the legislation throughout that interval. The business withdrew the measure in Junehowever because of value, the trailer invoice may nonetheless delay oil business deadlines to adjust to some laws for 12 to 54 months.
Sen. Lena Gonzaleza Lengthy Seashore Democrat and creator of the unique legislation, stated the brand new proposal was very irritating: “There has been so much work put into this. We owe it to these communities to stick to our word.”
Be taught extra about this challenge in Julie’s story.
