With California drivers paying more than $6 for a gallon of gas and state officials deadlocked for months over how to provide relief, lawmakers in the state Assembly on Monday announced they would investigate oil companies.
SACRAMENTO — With California drivers paying more than $6 for a gallon of gas and state officials deadlocked for months over how to provide relief, lawmakers in the state Assembly on Monday announced they would investigate oil companies they say are"abusing a historic situation to suck profits from Californians' wallets."
"We have put ourselves in a situation because of our addiction to the gas-powered engine. Yet that is no excuse for the actions of those who pin California drivers down with a foot on our necks and a hand in our pockets," Rendon said. California Democrats say they fear suspending the gas tax would benefit only big oil companies, whom state regulators accused in the past of artificially inflating prices in a state that has more than 36 million registered vehicles on the road.
California gas prices have historically been among the country's highest, prompting a number of previous studies and inquiries by state officials — including an investigation by former Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who was outraged when prices reached $1.71 per gallon in San Francisco in 1999. Instead of suspending the gas tax, California Democrats want to use the state's record-breaking budget surplus of nearly $100 billion to send money directly to taxpayers to help offset the high price of fuel. But nothing has happened yet because Democrats who control the state Legislature have been unable to agree with Newsom on how to do that.
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