CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2024, OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“CONFUSION, CONTRADICTION ON
GASOLINE PRICE GOUGING”
At every level of government,
there are times when it seems the left hand has no clue what the right hand is
doing. Nov. 8 might become one of those confounding times.
That’s the date – just
three days after the presidential election – reserved by the California Air
Resources Board (CARB) for a decision on whether to toughen state rules on the
carbon intensity of fuels. The fuel of concern here is gasoline.
The more carbon oil
refineries bake into the gas they produce, the more greenhouse gas emissions
most car engines will spew, thus increasing smog. It has been CARB’s fervent mission
since the 1960s to reduce smog in California’s air. That function is even
enshrined in the federal Clean Air Act of 1970, signed into law by Republican
President Richard Nixon.
The problem is that
toughening up California’s low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) will make gasoline
more expensive. No one knows just how much more expensive, though, and CARB
says it is not equipped to analyze what the effect will be on retail gasoline
prices.
Most estimates, however,
suggest a 65 cent per gallon increase if the LCSF is made a lot stricter, as
proposed. That would come on top of California’s already high gas prices, which
consistently run about $1.20 above the national average.
Nobody wants this, especially
as California and the nation recover from a strong bout of general inflation.
At the very same time, the
special legislative session called by Gov. Gavin Newsom this fall to counter
gasoline price gouging by refiners has finished its work.
Newsom, not incidentally,
appoints all CARB board members, and he can fire them anytime. But as he
supposedly seeks to lower prices with one hand at the legislative level, an
agency he can absolutely control may adopt a tactic guaranteed to increase
prices.
If that’s not a confused
contradiction, it’s hard to see what might be.
Newsom has taken heat from
several members of Congress from both parties and from the governors of Nevada
and Arizona (one Republican, one Democrat), for his plan – passed by the state
Assembly and Senate – forcing refineries to maintain significant new reserves
of gasoline for use at times when they shut down for maintenance or occasional
emergencies.
Nevada and Arizona both get
most of their gas from California refineries, and their governors fear creating
a large reserve will drive pump prices up in those states, both now featuring a
host of California emigres.
They’re probably wrong,
because the reserve would not appear instantly, but gradually. Gas would be
pumped into it at times of surplus, not when supplies are tight.
While the other governors’ concern
is probably groundless, the new reserves are proving politically useful for
some in this era of fearmongering politicos. Meanwhile, there is no doubt whatever
that a severely lowered LCFS would raise prices.
So it’s high time Newsom
tells his appointees to hold off on a stricter LCFS. Since he appoints the
board members scheduled to vote on this, he can easily and properly tell them
at least to delay their action until they know exactly how much it will cost
consumers.
It's true that CARB does not
usually worry about consumer costs, as it is supposed to deal almost solely with
air quality and not what it costs. But for CARB to raise gas prices at the very
moment Newsom seeks to steady them legislatively makes no sense at all.
Besides, there is no great
urgency, no public pressure, to lower the LCFS just now, at least nothing like
the urgency of the 1960s and 1970s, when banks of smoggy brown air hung over
entire regions like Southern California, the Central Valley and (to a lesser
degree) the San Francisco Bay Area. Ambient air is cleaner here now. Electric
cars produce no smog, hybrids produce only a little and even gasoline engines spew
much less than they once did, causing the browned clouds to become much more
rare.
So it’s time Newsom stays his
left hand while his right hand works on preventing gasoline price gouging. To
proceed as now scheduled borders on insanity.
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Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough, The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It," is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net