Governor Newsom blasts Trump for raising gasoline prices on Americans with no plan and no accountability

In the 9 days since President Trump launched military strikes on Iran, the price of crude oil has experienced historic volatility, at one point spiking over $100 per barrel for the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and translating to average national gas prices that are 56 cents per gallon higher on average than the start of the conflict. His response to the price spike he created? “If they rise, they rise.” Meanwhile, his own Chief of Staff has privately warned that failing to act on rising prices would be “catastrophic” for Republicans.

Because oil is a worldwide commodity that trades at a worldwide price, the conflict is hitting Americans in red states, blue states, oil-producing states, and the 18 states that don’t drill at all. Prices are going up in Texas and Oklahoma the same as they are in California. This is Trump’s Iran price spike, and more drilling or refining in California would not necessarily help today’s gas price spikes.

❌ MYTH: Drilling more would lower gas prices.
✅ FACT: Oil trades at a worldwide price. American crude sells to the highest bidder, not at a discount for Americans. So when crude oil spikes as it has this week, American drilled oil will still sell at that elevated global price, meaning Americans see no direct price benefit from domestic production. Every $10/barrel increase in crude translates to a roughly ~24 cent/gallon increase at the pump, which is why prices are spiking in Texas, Oklahoma, and every oil-producing state in America. No amount of domestic drilling stops a war from disrupting global prices. The U.S. cannot drill its way out of Trump’s global price shock.  

❌ MYTH: Repealing gas taxes would bring prices down.
✅ FACT: Repealing gas taxes wouldn’t lower prices at the pump — it would hand oil companies a massive tax break with no guarantee that a single cent would be passed on to drivers. That’s exactly what happened in Florida, where a gas tax holiday was reported to have been pocketed largely by fuel companies instead of consumers. California’s gas tax — upheld by voters in 2018 — funds safer roads, bridge repairs, and proven efforts to reduce air pollution and protect public health. Gas taxes are fixed costs that don’t fluctuate with the market and have nothing to do with the price spikes that Americans are experiencing this week.  

And one thing that rarely gets mentioned: California wouldn’t need to rely so heavily on its gas tax if it received its fair share of federal highway funding in the first place. Instead, Congress allocates California less funding per capita than all but two states, meaning California drivers are already subsidizing roads in other states while paying more to maintain their own.

❌ MYTH: California hasn’t done anything to protect drivers at the pump.
✅ FACT: Over the past two years, California gas prices have been stable and significantly lower than the historic 2022 and 2023 price spikes. That stability is the direct result of tools Governor Newsom fought for and signed into law: SBX1-2 and ABX2-1, which created first-in-the-nation transparency and oversight requirements on the oil industry. According to a 2024 CEC report, those laws have delivered results. In 2024, the annual average price of a gallon of gasoline was 20 cents lower than in 2023 and 70 cents lower compared to 2022, adjusted for inflation. This equated to an avoided cost to Californians of about $2.5 billion compared to 2023 and $9.3 billion compared to 2022.

Trump’s war is now upending that hard-won stability, but California’s tools remain in place, and we’re using every one of them.

❌ MYTH: California’s climate and health policies are making the gas price problem worse.
✅ FACT: California’s clean energy policies are the long-term solution to gas price volatility, not the cause of it. The best way to permanently insulate consumers from oil price shocks caused by wars, geopolitical instability, OPEC decisions, and market speculation is to reduce dependence on petroleum altogether. California is doing exactly that. 

California’s gasoline demand peaked in 2007 and has been declining ever since thanks to California’s sustained policy choices. A car running on electricity or a truck running on renewable diesel isn’t impacted by what happens at the Strait of Hormuz. Today, 70% of in-state diesel consumption comes from renewable diesel. California leads the nation in electric vehicle adoption, with millions of EVs on the road — every one of them insulated from the price spike hitting gas-powered vehicles this week.

Trump’s energy policy is to drill more of the same fuel that a single foreign conflict can send prices skyrocketing overnight. California’s energy policy is to make that vulnerability a thing of the past. One of these strategies is working.

❌ MYTH: California is sitting on swaths of untapped in-state oil and refusing to drill.
✅ FACT: Last year, Governor Newsom also signed SB 237 to responsibly increase oil production in Kern County. Since January 1st, Kern County has issued 385 permits for various types of well work, and CalGEM has issued 138 permits to drill new oil and gas wells, which are all under strengthened safety requirements and enhanced protections to safeguard communities from oil and gas operations.