News/Commentary

CA Dems demand to know why gas prices are so high, so energy company Valero takes them to school

October 8, 2022 | | Print Article

California Gov. Gavin Newsom can’t seem to figure out what is causing gas prices in the state to skyrocket and one energy company is more than happy to explain it to the woke Democrat in brutal fashion.

(Video Credit: NBC Bay Area)

As gas prices approach $7 a gallon in California, residents are screaming bloody murder. Newsom’s solution is an insane “windfall tax” on oil and gas companies.

“It’s time to get serious. I’m sick of this. This is one of the greatest fleecings for consumers in world history.” Newsom said, according to NPR. “We’ve been too timid.”

“This is just rank price gouging. They can get away with it,” Newsom told reporters during a news conference in Sacramento, according to the Los Angeles Times. “They’re taking advantage of you, every single one of you, every single day. Hundreds of millions of dollars a week they’re putting in their pockets, lining their pockets at your expense, and then polluting this planet and leaving us all the external realities and costs associated with that.”

Put aside for a moment that most of these companies already can’t make a profit thanks to Newsom’s socialistic policies. Any tax on them will automatically be passed on to consumers, raising gas prices even more. Gas prices in California are the highest in the nation already.

Either Newsom is a moron or he is deliberately trying to kill off gas and oil companies. He must certainly think Californians are imbeciles and can’t figure this out.

David Hochschild, who is the Newsom-appointed chair of the California Energy Commission, is echoing the Democratic governor in demanding answers from energy companies.

Newsom and Hochschild got an answer they did not expect. Texas-based Valero Energy was delighted to explain it to them in a letter, no holds barred.

“As to separation between California prices and the prices in the rest of the United States, we can offer the following information. For Valero, California is the most expensive operating environment in the country and a very hostile regulatory environment for refining. California policy makers have knowingly adopted policies with the expressed intent of eliminating the refinery sector. California requires refiners to pay very high carbon cap and trade fees and burdened gasoline with cost of the low carbon fuel standards. With the backdrop of these policies, not surprisingly, California has seen refineries completely close or shut down major units. When you shut down refinery operations, you limit the resilience of the supply chain,” the letter from Valero elaborates.

“From the perspective of a refiner and fuel supplier, California is the most challenging market to serve in the United States for several additional reasons. California regulators have mandated a unique blend of gasoline that is not readily available outside of the West Coast. California is largely isolated from fuel markets of the central and eastern United States. California has imposed some the most aggressive, and thus expensive and limiting, environmental regulatory requirements in the world. California polices (sic) have made it difficult to increase refining capacity and have prevented supply projects to lower operating costs of refineries,” the company continued.

“We believe the Commission experts understand that California cannot mandate a unique fuel that is not readily unavailable outside of the West Coast and then burden or eliminate California refining capacity and expect to have robust fuel supplies. Adding further costs, in the form of new taxes or regulatory constraints, will only further strain the fuel market and adversely impact refiners and ultimately those costs will pass to California consumers,” Valero concluded in the letter.

Of course, Newsom dismissed those arguments, saying that still doesn’t account for a $2.50 difference between California’s gas prices and those in the rest of the country.

“These guys are playing us for fools. They have for decades,” Newsom falsely claimed.

This is exactly why gas prices are exploding in California and not everyone in the state is a mindless leftist. Newsom and the Democrats should look in the mirror for who to blame over it.

Conservatives on Twitter thought it was a breath of fresh air when it comes to honesty from a big company like Valero:

The Free Beacon’s Noah Pollack tweeted, “This is beautiful. So rare these days to see candor and truth from a large corporation.”

User Grant Campell laid it out nicely, “How to say “you’re a moron” without saying “you’re a moron.'”

Entrepreneur Lawrence Hamtil nailed it, “Every word of this straight into my veins.”

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Terresa Monroe-Hamilton
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