{"id":192761,"date":"2025-06-26T10:44:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T17:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=192761"},"modified":"2025-06-26T10:44:52","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T17:44:52","slug":"newsom-responds-to-claims-swirling-on-california-gas-prices-while-ca-ave-is-4-89-rest-of-us-ave-is-3-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=192761","title":{"rendered":"Newsom Responds to Claims Swirling on California Gas Prices.  CA Average is $4.89 &#038; Rest of US Average is $3.17"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sacramento, CA&#8230;California gas prices are 20 cents lower than one month ago and 17 cents lower than one year ago \u2013 despite a swirl of misinformation drawing attention to current prices.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-187475\" src=\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Newsom25.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Newsom25.jpg 400w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Newsom25-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Newsom25-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Newsom25-30x30.jpg 30w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>According to a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mclist.us7.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=afffa58af0d1d42fee9a20e55&amp;id=256c818d71&amp;e=0b26ba1b5c\"><strong>2024 report<\/strong><\/a>, thanks to major improvements in fuel efficiency, California drivers rank 45th in the nation for gasoline consumption and 21st in spending on gasoline per capita. Trump\u2019s tariffs and policies impacting the price of crude oil stand to swing gas prices far more than any state policy.<\/p>\n<p>Driven by misinformation pushed by Republican lawmakers and the oil industry, there remains a lot of speculation about California gas prices. Here are the facts.<\/p>\n<h2>CLAIM: California gas prices will go up by 65 cents or higher on July 1.<\/h2>\n<p><strong>FALSE.<\/strong>\u00a0There are two separate changes to fuel prices expected on or around July 1 \u2013 a\u00a0<strong><em>legislatively mandated and voter-approved gas tax increase<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0of\u00a0<strong><u>1.6 cents<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0and updated fuel standards that\u00a0<strong><em><u>could<\/u><\/em><\/strong>, according to experts, translate to\u00a0<strong><u>5 to 8 cents<\/u><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Gas tax:<\/strong>\u00a0California\u2019s gasoline tax will increase by 1.6 cents per gallon, starting July 1, as required by law. This annual inflation increase was enacted by the Legislature in 2017 to help pay for road repairs \u2013 and overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2018 when they rejected a repeal attempt.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><strong>Fuel standard:<\/strong>\u00a0Additionally, changes to the state\u2019s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) \u2013 which is not a tax \u2013 have been requested\u00a0to go into effect on July 1. Experts at UC Davis estimate this program, first established by Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, could add\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mclist.us7.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=afffa58af0d1d42fee9a20e55&amp;id=c9ec1707d1&amp;e=0b26ba1b5c\"><strong>between 5 and 8 cents<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0per gallon \u2013 well below one extreme projection that showed 65 cents. In the long term, LCFS is\u00a0<strong>estimated to reduce fuel costs for Californians per mile by 42%<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 translating to savings of over $20 billion in gasoline costs every year by 2045. Studies also show that LCFS credit prices have no correlation with gasoline prices.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>CLAIM: Gas prices could top $8 a gallon by next year.<\/h2>\n<p><strong>FALSE.<\/strong>\u00a0That number \u2013 widely reported in the media \u2013 comes from an\u00a0<strong><u>unscientific analysis whose author has close ties with the oil industry<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0and has been on the payroll of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The author fails to provide evidence to support his main claim and only relies on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mclist.us7.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=afffa58af0d1d42fee9a20e55&amp;id=0a7eb27eb2&amp;e=0b26ba1b5c\"><strong>vague references to models<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0with no details on what those models are based on. Other experts, such as\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mclist.us7.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=afffa58af0d1d42fee9a20e55&amp;id=4be96afdde&amp;e=0b26ba1b5c\"><strong>these Stanford economists<\/strong><\/a>, say gas price increases based on recent refinery announcements are likely to be negligible.<\/p>\n<h2>Correcting the record<\/h2>\n<p>Republican lawmakers in Congress recently echoed false claims about California gas prices in a letter. Here\u2019s what they got wrong. (<a href=\"https:\/\/mclist.us7.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=afffa58af0d1d42fee9a20e55&amp;id=ae9a83f544&amp;e=0b26ba1b5c\"><strong>View full-size here.<\/strong><\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-101261\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gov.ca.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Letter-to-Gov.-Newsom-CA-Gas-Tax.png\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) and (max-width: 1280px) 1280px, (min-width: 1281px) 2000px, 100vw\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gov.ca.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Letter-to-Gov.-Newsom-CA-Gas-Tax.png 2000w, https:\/\/www.gov.ca.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Letter-to-Gov.-Newsom-CA-Gas-Tax-1280x1280.png 1280w, https:\/\/www.gov.ca.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Letter-to-Gov.-Newsom-CA-Gas-Tax-980x980.png 980w, https:\/\/www.gov.ca.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Letter-to-Gov.-Newsom-CA-Gas-Tax-480x480.png 480w\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sacramento, CA&#8230;California gas prices are 20 cents lower than one month ago and 17 cents lower than one year ago \u2013 despite a swirl of misinformation drawing attention to current prices. According to a\u00a02024 report, thanks to major improvements in fuel efficiency, California drivers rank 45th in the nation for gasoline consumption and 21st in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":187475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Newsom25.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=192761"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":192763,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192761\/revisions\/192763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/187475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=192761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=192761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=192761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}