{"id":214579,"date":"2026-03-11T09:05:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T09:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/214579\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T09:05:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T09:05:16","slug":"governor-newsom-blasts-trump-for-raising-gasoline-prices-on-americans-with-no-plan-and-no-accountability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/214579\/","title":{"rendered":"Governor Newsom blasts Trump for raising gasoline prices on Americans with no plan and no accountability"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the 9 days since President Trump launched military strikes on Iran, the price of crude oil has experienced historic volatility, at one point spiking over $100 per barrel for the first time since Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and translating to average national gas prices that are 56 cents per gallon higher on average than the start of the conflict.\u00a0His\u00a0response<\/a>\u00a0to the price spike he created? \u201cIf they rise, they rise.\u201d Meanwhile, his own Chief of Staff has privately warned that failing to act on rising prices would be \u201ccatastrophic\u201d for Republicans.<\/p>\n

Because oil is a worldwide commodity that trades at a worldwide price, the conflict is hitting Americans in red states, blue states, oil-producing states, and the 18 states that don\u2019t drill at all. Prices are going up in Texas and Oklahoma the same as they are in California. This is Trump\u2019s Iran price spike, and more drilling or refining in California would not necessarily help today\u2019s gas price spikes.<\/p>\n

The facts Trump hopes you never see<\/p>\n

\u274c MYTH:\u00a0Drilling more would lower gas prices.
\u2705 FACT:\u00a0Oil trades at a worldwide price. American crude sells to the highest bidder, not at a discount for Americans. So when crude oil spikes as it has this week, American drilled oil will still sell at that elevated global price, meaning Americans see no direct price benefit from domestic production. Every $10\/barrel increase in crude translates to a roughly ~24 cent\/gallon increase at the pump, which is why prices are spiking in Texas, Oklahoma, and every oil-producing state in America. No amount of domestic drilling stops a war from disrupting global prices. The U.S. cannot drill its way out of Trump\u2019s global price shock.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u274c MYTH:\u00a0Repealing gas taxes would bring prices down.
\u2705 FACT:\u00a0Repealing gas taxes wouldn\u2019t lower prices at the pump \u2014 it would hand oil companies a massive tax break with no guarantee that a single cent would be passed on to drivers. That\u2019s exactly what happened in Florida, where a gas tax holiday was reported to have been pocketed largely by fuel companies instead of consumers. California\u2019s gas tax \u2014 upheld by voters in 2018 \u2014 funds safer roads, bridge repairs, and proven efforts to reduce air pollution and protect public health. Gas taxes are fixed costs that don\u2019t fluctuate with the market and have nothing to do with the price spikes that Americans are experiencing this week.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

And one thing that rarely gets mentioned: California wouldn\u2019t need to rely so heavily on its gas tax if it received its fair share of federal highway funding in the first place. Instead, Congress\u00a0allocates<\/a>\u00a0California less funding per capita than all but two states, meaning California drivers are already subsidizing roads in other states while paying more to maintain their own.<\/p>\n

\u274c MYTH:\u00a0California hasn\u2019t done anything to protect drivers at the pump.
\u2705 FACT:\u00a0Over the past two years, California gas prices have been stable and significantly lower than the historic 2022 and 2023 price spikes. That stability is the direct result of tools Governor Newsom fought for and signed into law:\u00a0SBX1-2<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0ABX2-1<\/a>, which created first-in-the-nation transparency and oversight requirements on the oil industry. According to a\u00a02024 CEC report<\/a>, those laws have delivered results. In 2024, the annual average price of a gallon of gasoline was 20 cents lower than in 2023 and 70 cents lower compared to 2022, adjusted for inflation. This equated to an avoided cost to Californians of about $2.5 billion compared to 2023 and $9.3 billion compared to 2022.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s war is now upending that hard-won stability, but California\u2019s tools remain in place, and we\u2019re using every one of them.<\/p>\n

\u274c MYTH:\u00a0California\u2019s climate and health policies are making the gas price problem worse.
\u2705 FACT:\u00a0California\u2019s clean energy policies are the long-term solution to gas price volatility, not the cause of it. The best way to permanently insulate consumers from oil price shocks caused by wars, geopolitical instability, OPEC decisions, and market speculation is to reduce dependence on petroleum altogether. California is doing exactly that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

California\u2019s gasoline demand peaked in 2007 and has been declining ever since thanks to California\u2019s sustained policy choices. A car running on electricity or a truck running on renewable diesel isn\u2019t impacted by what happens at the Strait of Hormuz. Today, 70% of in-state diesel consumption comes from renewable diesel. California leads the nation in electric vehicle adoption, with millions of EVs on the road \u2014 every one of them insulated from the price spike hitting gas-powered vehicles this week.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s energy policy is to drill more of the same fuel that a single foreign conflict can send prices skyrocketing overnight. California\u2019s energy policy is to make that vulnerability a thing of the past. One of these strategies is working.<\/p>\n

\u274c MYTH:\u00a0California is sitting on swaths of untapped in-state oil and refusing to drill.
\u2705 FACT:\u00a0Last year, Governor Newsom also signed SB 237 to responsibly increase oil production in Kern County. Since January 1st, Kern County has issued 385 permits for various types of well work, and CalGEM has issued 138 permits to drill new oil and gas wells, which are all under strengthened safety requirements and enhanced protections to safeguard communities from oil and gas operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the 9 days since President Trump launched military strikes on Iran, the price of crude oil has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-214579","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}