Gavin Newsom rejects gas tax suspension, blames Trump for soaring prices
Newsom dismisses suspending California's gas tax even as prices hit $6.16 a gallon, blaming Trump and Iran while experts say the state's own policies are the real driver.
California drivers stared down $6.16-a-gallon gasoline last week while Governor Gavin Newsom flatly rejected any suspension of the state gas tax and instead blamed Donald Trump for inflaming tensions with Iran.
The statewide average now towers more than $1.60 above the national $4.54 figure, the direct result of refinery closures, aggressive environmental mandates, and a deliberate shift away from in-state crude. At a tense Capitol hearing this week, even UC Berkeley economist Severin Borenstein conceded that a temporary tax holiday "could help consumers" and suggested indexing fuel taxes to fall when crude prices spike.
Newsom would have none of it. "California hasn’t changed anything as it relates to cost," he insisted. "Those baseline costs have been static. But the cost at the pump has not been, for one reason: Donald Trump’s recklessness as it relates to the war in Iran." He dismissed critics as "high-paid lobbyists" peddling someone else’s fault.
That posture ignores the concrete additives Sacramento itself imposes. The state’s Cap-and-Trade program alone tacks at least 20 cents onto every gallon. Nearly 90 percent of registered vehicles still run on gasoline, yet California is legally racing toward a 2045 ban on oil and gas. Two refineries have shuttered in the past six months under tightening clean-air rules, while regulators cap fuel reserves and target oil-company profits. The state now imports roughly one-third of its foreign crude through the vulnerable Strait of Hormuz; the latest tanker, the Hong Kong-flagged New Corolla, delivered what may be the last 2 million barrels before Iranian restrictions tightened.
Industry voices are blunt. Carbon Energy CEO Pat McDonald warned of $10 diesel and $8.50 gasoline without immediate relief and urged Newsom to issue executive orders easing regulations and boosting domestic production. Republican candidate Steve Hilton contrasted the inaction with Australia’s recent halving of its fuel excise tax, which saved drivers about $13 per 17-gallon tank. "Any decent governor who cared about regular working people would have done this weeks ago," Hilton said.
Trump has proposed six new offshore lease sales off California to cut foreign dependence. Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta are suing to stop them. While the governor points fingers at Washington, the policy architecture that made California the most expensive fuel market in America remains untouched and on track.
Original reporting: New York Post.
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