(Reuters) -California Governor Gavin Newsom has directed state officers to step up efforts to ensure dependable gasoline provides for the nation’s greatest auto market, prompting oil corporations responsible state insurance policies for troublesome enterprise circumstances and excessive pump costs.
Newsom’s letter to California Power Fee Vice Chair Siva Gunda, dated April 21 and seen by Reuters on Wednesday, got here days after Valero Power stated it will completely shut or restructure its refinery in Benicia, California by the tip of April 2026. The Benicia refinery accounts for about 9% of the state’s crude oil refining capability.
“I write to direct you to redouble the State’s efforts to work carefully with refiners on short- and long-term planning, together with by high-level, speedy engagement, to assist be sure that Californians proceed to have entry to a secure, inexpensive, and dependable provide of transportation fuels,” Newsom wrote. He added that though gasoline demand within the state was in a gradual decline, it will exist for years to return.
The governor set a July 1 deadline for the CEC to advocate adjustments to the state’s strategy to managing gasoline provides throughout the power transition and requested the company to strengthen the state’s perception that refiners can function profitably.
Refiners have stated they face rising regulatory and value pressures in California, which has among the many most aggressive local weather change insurance policies of any U.S. state and has a objective to ban new gasoline-powered automobiles beginning in 2035.
Gasoline costs in California are among the many highest in america as a result of state’s reliance on imports from Latin America and the Center East to offset declining state provides.
In his letter, Newsom stated the Trump administration was responsible for financial instability and market turmoil that was harming oil corporations.
A refining commerce group stated that assertion was false, and as a substitute blamed California.
“Governor Newsom’s letter to the California Power Fee directing it to ‘redouble’ its efforts to work carefully with refiners so ‘they see the worth in serving the California market’ is laughable and a blatant effort to cowl his bottom,” Chet Thompson, CEO of the American Gasoline & Petrochemical Producers, stated in an emailed assertion. “State insurance policies, not the brand new administration in Washington, are why gasoline producers battle to function in California and why California drivers face the very best gasoline costs within the nation.”
(Reporting by Nichola GroomEditing by Marguerita Choy)
Source link