Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom enacted a law Monday that will empower state bureaucrats to monitor and dictate inventory levels at oil refineries to prevent gas price hikes. [emphasis, links added]
Newsom signed ABX2-1, which will enable regulators to require oil companies to keep a minimum level of fuel on hand and permit the California Energy Commission (CEC) to mandate refiners to make plans to provide resupply during outages for maintenance.
While proponents say the bill is a key step to prevent major corporations from gouging consumers with artificially high prices at the pump during periods of low supply, industry interests have slammed the bill as political hostility directed at the oil and gas industry.
“With this new law, big oil companies are now responsible for stabilizing prices at the pump. It’s a critical accomplishment, but our work is not done,” California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, a Democrat, said of the new law.
“I will continue to fight to lower the cost of living, because housing, groceries, and everyday necessities must be more affordable for all Californians.”
Andy Walz, a senior executive at Chevron, slammed the new bill in a Tuesday letter to state lawmakers.
Chevron opted in August to move its headquarters out of California, a decision that Walz described as motivated partly by California’s unforgiving business environment.
“Chevron is concerned by the recent Committee and Assembly passages of ABX2-1 and seeks to address some of the inaccurate and flawed arguments made by its proponents. As the Senate prepares to vote, it is crucial that it makes a fact-based decision. The political posturing that has characterized these proceedings must stop, including baseless and frankly ridiculous claims that the industry is engaging in price gouging,” Walz wrote in his letter.
Walz added that “the claim that regulation is justified because ‘price spikes are profit spikes’ is misleading” and that “these statements about price spikes also overlook that supply shortages are an outcome of California’s regulatory policy and fail to reflect the energy industry’s cyclical nature.”
The Western States Petroleum Association, a trade association, also ripped the new law, saying that “regulators remain fixated on controlling businesses with more taxes, fees, and costly demands” in a Monday statement.
Read rest at Daily Caller
Governor Nuisance is proving to be bigger idiot then Biden and Moonbeam Brown he is turning our State into his own little Kingdom where he can Bully us and Tax us and imprison those who refuse to abide by his rules
Chevron, et al, should just close up shop and move out of California. Let the state figure out how to produce gasoline, diesel, etc. from the refineries.
Reminds me of Indonesia in the 1960’s. Most of the Dutch were ousted in 1964. Bintang Baru (New Star) beer was brewed in Surabaya, Java. The new Indonesian brewmaster couldn’t produce a drinkable beer. They invited the Dutchman back. “Twice the salary I was earning before.” They paid it. I enjoyed that beer for 18 months while working on the island of Borneo (Kalimantan).
Just because you have the plant (refinery in this case), doesn’t mean you can produce a salable product.
Interesting story. All we have to do is look at Venezuela which sits on the largest oil deposits and produced significant number of barrels of oil a day plus refined much of it (the rest was shipped to Texas to be refined–it is a heavy crude that the gulf coast refineries are tuned for). After the take-over by Chavez and now the former bus driver Maduro the oil production has dropped precipitously due to kicking out the American engineers.