California should pause Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to penalize oil companies if their profits climb too high, a top energy regulator said Friday while unveiling proposals aimed at addressing high gas prices.
The Democratic governor signed a law in 2023 giving the California Energy Commission the authority to penalize oil companies for excess profits, declaring the state had “finally beat big oil.” More than two years later, the commission hasn’t imposed a single penalty or determined what counts as an excessive profit.
Now, Siva Gunda, the energy commission’s vice-chair, says the state should pause the effort in favor of pursuing other policies to lower prices and maintain a steady oil supply — all while pushing to phase out reliance on fossil fuels over the next two decades.
Isn’t it good when oil companies are charging more? Encourages people to use public transit
Fine the hell out of them.
I suspect that oil companies have CA over a barrel. Part of what makes fuel in CA so expensive is that CA requires a special blend be sold here, much of which is refined locally. That all said, I suspect that should the state actually impose these fines, the refiners would simply refuse to produce or artificially limit supply, sending prices and CA into a frenzy, the anger of which would be directed at the state. The refiners know this, and therefore the state has limited options to keep the peace.
Not enough info. Why have they never used it? If they don’t feel like enforcing consumer protections, they should be replaced. But if price gouging isn’t happening or the law is poorly defined, I have more sympathy for repealing a law that isn’t being g used