By Alexei Koseff
CalMatters Writer
The state Capitol would normally be fairly empty this time of year, as lawmakers scatter to their districts across California to work on constituent services or run for re-election.
It is not, however, a normal year.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has summoned the Legislature this fall for a special session to address gasoline prices, asking them to pass additional regulations on oil refinery inventory and maintenance after he failed to jam through his proposal at the end of the regular session in August.
So, more than a dozen members of the Assembly convened in Sacramento Wednesday to commence that process with an informational hearing on the petroleum supply chain and California’s planned transition away from fossil fuels.
It was long. It was highly technical. And if it was intended to give wavering Assembly members the confidence to support Newsom’s bill — which aims to avert gas shortages and price spikes at the pump by requiring refiners to maintain an inventory of fuel that they can tap into when they go offline for maintenance — it’s unclear that it moved the needle.
“I think they’re more confused,” Assemblyman Mike Gipson, a Carson Democrat, joked during a break in the hearing. He has introduced his own bill to delay new emissions reductions regulations for oil tankers that dock at California ports.
The Assembly is where the governor’s proposal ran aground last month. Amid skepticism about the policy, which the oil industry argues would actually drive up prices by creating an artificial supply shortage, and frustration over Newsom’s last-minute tactics, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas said his members needed more time to consider the bill and declined to bring it up for a vote.
Though Rivas has already set a floor session for Oct. 1, when the Assembly would presumably vote on the refinery regulations, it’s uncertain whether the measure has enough support among the supermajority Democratic caucus to advance — or is on a path to get there in the next two weeks.
Republicans hate the proposal but are thrilled by Newsom’s timing, eager to make high gas prices — which they blame on California’s frequent regulatory incursions into the gasoline market — an issue for vulnerable Democrats in the November election.
Assemblyman Joe Patterson, a Rocklin Republican, said at a press conference: “The proposals coming out of Sacramento have not brought the relief that Californians need.”
The governor has amped up his own public messaging to make the case that the oil industry is gouging Californians and the state needs to take action to bring down prices. His office issued a lengthy prebuttal ahead of the hearing “debunking Big Oil’s lies.”
But Newsom’s voice may not ultimately ring loudest for lawmakers. At one point during the hearing, Gipson asked Tom Robinson, the president of an independent chain of Northern California gas stations, how California could fix the problem of not having enough gasoline supply.
“I don’t think you can,” Robinson said. “I think that all you can do is make it worse.”
