In California, fuel prices often are higher than anywhere else in the country, a reflection of the state’s high cost of living that voters want their next governor to address.
The two candidates running to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom — Democratic former U.S. Health and Human Services secretary Xavier Becerra and Republican former Fox News host Steve Hilton — have vastly different views on climate and energy policy.
Here is where they stand on gas prices, electric vehicle mandates and California’s long-delayed high-speed rail project.
Gas prices and California’s refineries
California is the most expensive gasoline market in the nation, according to AAA, with an average price of $6.01 per gallon. Nationally, the average price was $4.28 per gallon, and this month was expected to become the most expensive for gas prices on record, according to AAA.
Becerra and Hilton both blame the high costs on the opposing political party — Becerra says President Trump’s war in Iran has increased prices by $2 per gallon, while Hilton blames California’s prices on policies pushed by Newsom and Democratic lawmakers.
Hilton has made the promise of $3 a gallon gasoline at California’s pumps a central plank of his affordability campaign. He argues he can achieve the target by repealing “outdated” environmental regulations and issuing more drilling permits in California.
Pumps in the McKittrick oil field, just north of the town of McKittrick on State Route 33.
(Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)
“We could be producing most of it here in California, [in] Kern County, and sending it to the refineries in a nice clean pipeline,” Hilton said during an August town hall in Modesto. “Instead of that, we’re shipping it halfway across the world, and giant super tankers spewing out carbon emissions. It’s insane.”
While he has expressed a desire to lower costs, Becerra has released scant details about how he would do it.
He took heat from fellow Democrats during the primary for defending Chevron after the oil producer donated half a million dollars to a committee supporting his campaign. He clarified that his statements were about keeping oil refineries in California, especially since several have shut down in recent years.
“We need to continue to have refineries so that we can process the petroleum, so we can have gasoline, so we don’t have prices that are even higher than what they are right now,” Becerra said during an August event with Politico.
EVs and car regulations
The next governor will decide whether to continue Newsom’s ambitious plan to accelerate the transition to zero-emission vehicles by banning the sale of new gas cars in California by 2035.
While Becerra supports transitioning away from gas-powered vehicles, along with California’s broader carbon neutrality goals, he has raised concerns about costs.
“The goal is great. What we have to do is make sure that goal matches the reality of our families,” he told CalMatters this year. “And if our families can’t afford to keep pace with the goal, then what good is the goal?”
Becerra would be open to revising or delaying the goals to prioritize affordability.
Hilton would end the state’s climate goals, which he blames for driving up energy and other costs.
A car charges at an EV station.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
“I’m not against reducing carbon emissions,” Hilton said during a town hall with The Times and LAist this month. “I just want to do it in a way that both helps with the fight against climate change, but doesn’t hurt working people and small businesses.”
He argued that increasing domestic oil production and overhauling vegetation management to reduce the risk of megafires would reduce emissions more effectively than decades of heavy-handed climate rules.
Hilton has railed against “nanny-state” regulations, including new fuel efficiency standards for car tires.
“We are gonna shut it all down, rein it in, merge all of these regulators so we have common-sense regulation instead of this out of control, costly bureaucracy,” he said, standing outside a state office building in August to protest the tire regulations. He also has pledged to abolish the Department of Motor Vehicles and reduce registration fees to $73.
High-speed rail
The Tied Arch Bridge construction site, which will take high-speed trains over State Route 43 in Fresno County.
(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)
Hilton would “cancel” all high-speed rail funding, which he said would save more than $3.7 billion per year.
While supportive of high-speed rail, Becerra is concerned by the project’s delays and cost overruns. He would “clean shop” at the authority, which signed off on hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel expenses that should not have been approved, according to a recent audit.
“If we build, it’s gonna be because we can get this done the right way. We’re not gonna have this overspending, we’re not gonna have this misspending,” he said during a recent campaign stop in Sacramento. “California is the fourth-largest economy, with the most innovation. We can get it done too, but it won’t be done this way.”
