California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday he will call a special session of the state Legislature in December to pass a new tax on oil company profits to punish them for what he called “rank price gouging.'
. Newsom and his fellow Democrats that control the state Legislature refused to do that, opting instead to send $9.5 billion in rebates to taxpayers — which began showing up in bank accounts this week.
That proposal would have required state regulators to determine the tax rate, making sure it recovered any oil companies’ profit margins that exceeded 30 cents per gallon. The money from the tax would then have been returned to taxpayers via rebates. California Republicans — who do not control enough seats to influence policy decisions in the Legislature — have called the tax "foolhardy."
On Friday, Scott Folwarkow, Valero’s vice president for state government affairs, responded that "California is the most expensive operating environment in the country and a very hostile regulatory environment for refining." He said that has caused refineries to close and tightened supply because California requires refineries to produce a specific fuel blend.
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