On high gas prices, Newsom tries to deflect the blame

California continues to suffer from the highest gas prices in the nation, with prices in some regions still above $6 a gallon.

The state’s Division of Petroleum Market Oversight has officially released its list of scapegoats: President Trump, Iran, and branded gas stations like Chevron conspiring to “add to the pain at the pump.”

Conveniently missing from the indictment is the man who spent years taxing, regulating, restricting, suing, and otherwise making California one of the most hostile places in America to produce energy: Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).

The report conveniently avoids discussing Newsom’s nation-leading gas taxes, years-long regulatory onslaught and political war against villainous “Big Oil,” the refinery closures that followed, and all other unique-to-California policies that have steadily reduced fuel supply while increasing the cost of producing it.

It also comes weeks after Newsom’s widely mocked Memorial Day post on X instructing Californians to avoid Chevron stations and buy “unbranded gas” instead — as if California’s energy crisis has been a consumer-branding problem all along. How fortunate that the state’s supposedly independent petroleum watchdog later reached the exact same conclusion.

Unfortunately for Newsom, California’s tax code is a matter of public record. California’s $1.40 per gallon is the highest gas tax in the nation. California now makes more money off each gallon of gasoline sold than the refiners who are actually producing the gasoline.

And that extra $1.40 comes........

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