Too many in our community are struggling to get by. As a commuter city, with people making long drives to work and back every day, one thing I hear about often when it comes to affordability is the cost of gas. As a single mom, I know how hard it is to balance paying for the essentials like gas, too.
At a time with so much divisiveness in our political system, Big Oil interests have been spending millions over the past year in mail, and now on a set of billboards, to mislead you on my record when it comes to gas prices. And, they are trying to scare me into voting the way they want, which includes protecting their profits over your pocketbook. They have seen me speak out and know I’m not afraid to stand up to their price gouging, like the crushing price spikes we saw in 2022, and they know that I’ve been fighting to lower your price at the pump.
Additionally, many politicians in Sacramento — both Republicans and Democrats — have used gas prices as a political tool to try and win elections. Rather than taking something that has such a huge impact on families and using it to play politics, our elected leaders should work as hard as they can to solve the problem, so families don’t have to struggle so much.
The truth is, while there are a number of factors that impact the cost of gas — including supply and demand, crude oil prices, refining, international markets, wars, and more — two reasons for increases have been the focus of Big Oil special interests: taxes and fuel pollution standards.
Let’s break it down here:
Gas Tax Increase
In 2017, five years before I was elected to office, the legislature passed the Road Repair and Accountability Act (Senate Bill 1), a bill aimed at funding transportation infrastructure improvements like road paving and bridge repairs. The idea was that the folks driving and using our roads the most would help to pay to maintain and improve them, which is why funds to make these improvements came from an ongoing gas tax increase, as well as vehicle registration fees.
In 2018, opponents to this legislation put a measure on the ballot to repeal the law. Overwhelmingly, that ballot measure was defeated, with only 43% of voters across the state in support of repealing the gas tax. In Los Angeles County, it was even less — with less than 39% of voters in support of the repeal. Due to this law, and the voters’ then rejecting the repeal of it, every year on July 1 the gas tax increases based on inflation. This year, just three weeks ago, the gas tax increased by 1.6 cents per gallon.
To be clear: the bill to increase the gas tax was passed before I was elected to office, and I have never voted to increase it. Any other claims are more than misleading – they’re a lie.
Fuel Standards
In 2009, the first Low Carbon Fuel Standards were adopted to start to start shifting the state to less polluting and more renewable fuels. The most recent update increased the severity of some of the requirements and as a result, it’s possible that the regulations could lead to a 5 to 8 cent increase. In response, we voted to waive the state Constitution to bring Assembly Bill 12 to the floor, which would have repealed the provisions of the low carbon fuel standard that could lead to the increase. The attempt to bring AB12 to the floor was made by a Republican in the Assembly, and I joined in support of this effort. It was my priority to do all we could to keep gas prices as low as possible, but our efforts were not successful and in the end there was no vote on AB12.
There are also other ways to decrease gas prices. I joined with Assemblyman David Alvarez to co-author AB 30, which would lower gas prices by increasing lower-cost ethanol in gasoline up to 15% of the fuel mix. Increasing the allowable ethanol in fuel will allow gas prices to go down, which is the reason I co-authored this legislation, which is now just a few short steps away from the governor’s desk.
The other way to reduce prices is to hold Big Oil corporations accountable for their part in passing along costs and continuing to make billions in profits while the rest of us struggle to fill our tanks. It is unconscionable that they make more profits year after year while we see prices continue to rise, especially at a time when so many of us desperately need the cost savings.
That’s why I have also done the work to go after these corporations. Many people in politics shy away from calling out these big money executives — they have shown that there are political consequences for coming after them, and many elected officials are more concerned with keeping their jobs than doing what’s right for the community. For me, the only reason I ran for Assembly in the first place is to make a difference for all of us — so going after these special interests is a necessity. And I have.
Despite Big Oil spending half a million dollars in a single day to attack me in my first election, as soon as I got elected I went to work calling out the price gouging in 2022, which hurt so many in our community. And when I challenged why they set prices so high, their answer was essentially, because we can. That’s why I supported the Price Gouging Penalty Bill (Senate Bill X1-2) to create oversight, transparency and allow penalties to hold Big Oil accountable when it comes to unfair gas pricing. This has meant we have the information we need to better fine tune policies that ensure we have the gas supply we need to do all we can to prevent a 2022 level price spike from ever happening again.
In my two campaigns, I have never had the spare money for lawn signs or billboards. So I take it as a compliment that the first billboards in our community come from an attempted attack by the Western States Petroleum Association, the lobbying arm of Big Oil corporations. I’m glad they think I’m the one they need to worry about. But as they, and anyone who has tried threatening me has learned since I got elected, threats only make me fight harder. I will never stop fighting for a more affordable life for our community. As long as greedy oil companies line their pockets with your hard-earned dollars, I will fight back, call them out, and stand up for you.
Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, represents the 40th Assembly District, which includes most of the Santa Clarita Valley in addition to the northwest San Fernando Valley. “Democratic Voices” appears Tuesdays and rotates among local Democrats.
