“Immediate help is needed.” California GOP lawmakers call for gas tax suspension

As gasoline prices rise again in California, Republican lawmakers have written a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom urging him to call a special session of the Legislature to suspend the state’s gasoline tax.

“Gasoline prices are rising again and Californians are paying $2 more per gallon than the rest of the country. Drivers spend more than $100 each month on gas alone. “These increased energy costs are putting a strain on already strained family budgets,” begins the letter, signed by all Republican lawmakers.

GOP lawmakers want Newsom to call a special session to temporarily suspend the state’s 58 cents per gallon fuel tax.

“Immediate relief is needed. “California is an energy island with isolated resources, making our state dependent on foreign imports unless further domestic production is permitted,” the letter continued.

Last year, Newsom said there would be a special session to address the state’s high gas prices and explore the possibility of a tax on oil companies’ windfall profits. This bill was passed and signed into law last March.

The bill created a petroleum market oversight division, which released a report earlier this month that blamed rising gas prices on Russia’s war against Ukraine, a decline in the supply of oil produced in California due to refinery failures and maintenance, and a Transaction on the gasoline market resulted in an increase of 50 cents.

“With prices back near record highs, Californians are rightly upset that current policies are not working,” the letter said.

It is unlikely that the letter will reach its destination. Legislative Republicans have tried repeatedly, unsuccessfully, to force a vote on suspending the gas tax. Each time, the Democratic supermajority killed the attempt.

Newsom on Wednesday evening directed the California Energy Commission to consider a possible penalty for gas price gougers and called on the Department of Petroleum Markets to submit proposals for market reforms by early 2024.

“Oil companies are cheating you and we will get to the bottom of it. Big Oil can no longer hide,” Newsom said in a statement to The Bee.