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In his State of the State speech, Governor Newsom indicated there could be a gas tax rebate in California.
The average price for a gallon of gas in the state is the nation's highest at $5.44, according to AAA — which is likely to increase as President Joe Biden announced a ban on Russian oil imports on Tuesday in response to the country's invasion of Ukraine. There were no specifics given on how the gas tax rebate would work, and halting the gas tax would require approval from the legislature. Governor Newsom says there will not be an increase in oil drilling in California or off its coast. “Drilling even more oil,” he said, “only leads to even more extreme weather, more extreme drought, more wildfire. We need to be fighting polluters, not bolstering them. And in the process of so doing, freeing us once and for all from the grasp of petro-dictators.”
“Gas prices are out of control. Let’s suspend the gas tax, stop using foreign oil and focus on energy independence policies that don’t place new burdens on working families,” Assemblymember Suzette Martinez Valladares said in the Republican response to Governor Newsom’s speech.
Taxes regulations and environmental laws have created the most expensive gas in the nation here in California, and aside from gas tax measures, the Governor has also been pushing to wean California, famous for its car culture, from the internal combustion engine - he ordered the state to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, and halt all in-state oil drilling by 2045.