As gas prices increase this week, California lawmakers push for gas tax suspension

As California gas prices soared this week in the wake of the war in Iran, Republican lawmakers in the Golden State are pushing for ways to lower gas prices for California’s drivers.

Senate Bill 1035, authored by state Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Huntington Beach, is the latest bill to be introduced this year that aims to save the state’s drivers money at the pump by suspending the California gas tax for one year. The bill also aims to also suspend the state’s low carbon fuel standard and cap-and-invest compliance for the period of a year.

“We’re in a time right now where people are living paycheck to paycheck,” Strickland told The Center Square Wednesday. “Hard-working families can’t afford these high gas prices, especially young people who are just trying to make it. A lot of people in California have to decide between a gallon of milk and a gallon of gas, and this is one thing we can do immediately.”

Under Strickland’s bill, the price of gas in California could go down by at least $1.08 a gallon. With the closure of two refineries in California in recent months, the state’s refinery production went down 20%, Strickland said. The recent war in Iran could drive up the state’s gas prices to potentially $10 or more a gallon and could impose gas shortages in the United States for the first time in decades, he added.

“There’s no good way to navigate that,” Strickland said. “When you need energy, you need gas to get to work and you can’t get it, that’s a major problem. That’s what’s being projected.”

Other bills introduced this year aim to accomplish similar or the same objectives.

Assemblyman Jeff Gonzalez, R-Indio, authored legislation that would also suspend the state’s gas tax, which followed a bill from Assemblywoman Lori Wilson, D-Suisun City, to establish a committee that would look at replacing the state’s gas tax with a per-mile charge that all California drivers would pay, regardless of whether they drove gas-powered or electric vehicles.

Fears of declining revenue from the state’s gas tax because of the increase in electric vehicle drivers in California fueled the effort to look into that per-mile tax, according to previous reporting by The Center Square.

The gas tax pays for the state’s transportation infrastructure, including roads and highways, according to the California Department of Transportation. Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows that California pays the most for gas than any other state in the country, mostly because of state taxes and fees on gas, environmental requirements and special fuel requirements.

“While families are tightening their belts, Sacramento continues to ask them for more," Gonzalez previously said at a press conference announcing his bill. “Working families should not be scraping pennies together just to get to work. Seniors on fixed incomes should not be punished simply for needing to drive to a doctor’s appointment.”

Lawmakers also expressed concern this week that proposed changes to the state’s cap-and-trade program could increase gas prices further by at least $1 for California drivers, legislators told The Center Square this week.

On Wednesday, the national average price of gas per gallon was $3.57, according to AAA’s gas price tracker. In California, gas prices went up to an average of $5.33 a gallon. The next-most expensive state to buy a gallon of gas in was Washington State, at $4.72 a gallon. The cheapest gas prices in the country were in Kansas, at $3.08 a gallon.

Democratic lawmakers on energy-related committees didn't respond to questions from The Center Square on Wednesday. Organizations The Center Square reached out to, like the Western States Petroleum Association, also didn't respond Wednesday.