Senate Leader Agrees to Resume Governor Newsom’s Gas Pricing Plan After Assembly Passes

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The leader of the California Senate, who got into a surprising public spat with Gov. Gavin Newsom over his special session over rising gas prices, finally agreed Tuesday to recall his members to Sacramento after the Assembly put forward the governor’s proposal.

Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire, a Healdsburg Democrat, announced that the Senate will meet next week to consider the fuel stockpile measure, with the intention of passing it by next Friday.

“The Senate intends to work quickly and efficiently so we can provide Californians the relief they deserve at the pump,” McGuire said in a statement.

Hours earlier, the Assembly passed House Bill 44 votes to 17. Some moderate Democrats joined Republicans in opposition, concerned that the plan would raise prices at the pump by limiting supply, while many others refused to vote.

“Californians face increasing costs. That’s exactly the problem,” Assemblyman Gregg Hart, a Santa Barbara Democrat who carried the bill, told his colleagues in attendance. “We cannot continue with the status quo.”

Newsom celebrated the Assembly vote with a statement in which he criticized the oil industry for soaring prices that he said cost Californians more than $2 billion last year, “forcing many families to make difficult decisions like choosing between stocking up or putting food on the table. This must stop, and with the support of the Legislature, we will make it happen for California families.

The Assembly has been under enormous pressure to act over the past month.

Newsom pushed the Legislature to pass his refinery maintenance proposal in the final days of the regular session, but Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, a Salinas Democrat, hesitated — responding not only to his members’ concerns that the plan could raise prices at the pump. , but also growing frustration with the governor’s frequent strategy of blocking lawmakers on major policy changes at the last minute.

With the added leverage of the hundreds of bills recently passed by the Legislature on his desk, Newsom immediately called a special session, eager to score a quick victory on what has become a marquee issue before the oil industry cannot regroup.

Senate Democrats were prepared to support new inventory requirements for refineries before the regular legislative session ended Aug. 31, but McGuire initially declined to call a special session, reflecting simmering tension with the Assembly over subject of previous legislation.

After meeting with the governor, he softened his stance, pledging to consider any measure that passed the Assembly. A spokesperson for McGuire declined multiple interview requests.

Rivas told reporters after the Assembly vote that he had not been in contact with McGuire about the Senate plans. He defended taking more time during the special session to review and modify Newsom’s proposal, while acknowledging that more changes are expected in the Senate and that its members will likely have to return to the Capitol in the coming weeks to vote again.

“We have a better bill today than at the end of the session,” Rivas said.

Recent weeks appear to have assuaged some of Democrats’ concerns about tighter regulation of California refineries, despite public rebukes from the governors of Arizona and Nevada and resistance from labor allies who warned it could endanger worker safety and cost them jobs. .

Several economists endorsed Newsom’s plan as a reasonable approach to mitigating price increases during planned seasonal maintenance, while reserving that it would not solve the broader problem of the stubbornly high cost of gasoline in the State.

At a committee hearing last week, Rep. Cottie Petrie-Norris, an Irvine Democrat who led the proceedings, chastised an oil lobbyist from the podium, saying the industry had failed to present a filing refuting arguments that the proposal could save California drivers billions of dollars a year.

The bill still faces uniform opposition from Republican lawmakers, who have warned that tougher regulations could ultimately drive refiners out of the state altogether.

“The truth is it’s the government that’s ripping us off,” Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher of Chico said during today’s debate, urging his colleagues to suspend the state’s gas tax. ‘State. “You’re not paying attention to consumers.”

But the Republican Party is also welcoming Newsom’s decision to focus on high gas prices in California in the midst of the election. The California Republican Party issued a warning to eight lawmakers running in swing districts Monday: If they support the measure, “California Republicans will spend the next 36 days making sure voters know who is responsible for the surge constant price of gasoline.

Six of those Democrats — Pilar Schiavo of Santa Clarita Valley, Sabrina Cervantes of Corona, Sharon Quirk-Silva of La Palma, Esmeralda Soria of Merced, Corey Jackson of Moreno Valley and Jacqui Irwin of Thousand Oaks — are present in the Assembly .

Only Jackson voted for the bill today, while Soria opposed it. Schiavo was absent from the session and the other members abstained.