Kevin Kiley: This Is What Newsom Must Do As California Suffers Nationally-High Gas Prices

In House floor remarks, Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) called out California's nationally-high gas prices.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There's good news for Americans when it comes to gas prices.

00:08They're down, about 50 cents since last year. But unfortunately, this good news does not extend

00:16to Californians. As you can see here, we remain a stark outlier with by far the highest gas prices

00:26in the country. As of just a couple days ago, gas prices in California are 29 cents higher

00:35than second place Hawaii, an island state. Third place is Washington. Our gas prices are 52 cents

00:43higher than Washington. They're 88 cents higher than fourth place Oregon, 94 cents higher than fifth

00:50place Nevada, a dollar and 16 higher than sixth place Alaska. This is truly astounding and is one

01:01of the main reasons why it's become so hard for people to get by in our state. Now, it's no mystery

01:11why this is so. California has by far the highest gas tax in the country. Our cap and trade program

01:19adds a huge amount to the price of each gallon, as well as the requirements of our fuel blend in

01:26California. All of these taxes and regulations combine to give California by far the highest gas prices

01:35in the country already. And now we've just learned that another refinery is closing. So two refineries

01:44have announced they are shutting down in California, thanks to our insane energy policies. This certainly

01:51is not going to help matters. It is time for Governor Newsom and the California legislature to restore

02:00just a little bit of common sense when it comes to our energy policies, because we cannot afford for

02:07these trends to continue. Indeed, it's one of the main reasons that people have been leaving our state

02:13in record numbers over the last several years.