SACRAMENTO, Calif. – After hearing from industry stakeholders and community leaders from around California at a meeting of the Senate Special Committee on Fuel Supply and Price Spikes today, Senator Brian Dahle (R-Bieber) concluded that the state’s heavy-handed regulations blocking new fuel supplies or even storage are the heart of the problem with high and volatile gasoline prices, and the governor’s proposed new mandates will only make a bad situation worse.
Senator Dahle served as vice chair of the committee as it discussed ABX2-1, which would authorize the California Energy Commission to develop and impose requirements for refiners to maintain minimum levels of inventories of refined transportation fuels. The governor proposed the bill as part of the special session of the Legislature he called in August.
Commonsense proposals, like suspending the gas tax and fast-tracking refinery storage projects, were killed in the Assembly last week.
