Cal Dems Back Windfall Profits Tax; Big Oil Execs Bail on Hearing
By Matt Ferner
1. The California Democratic Party passed a resolution in support of a windfall profits tax.
Golden State Grid obtained a copy of the resolution, authored by Igor Tregub, chair of the environmental caucus, which reads: “The California Democratic Party supports a portion of excessive profits from the oil and gas industry being invested in renewable energy production, sustainable transportation infrastructure, and healthier communities for the benefit of all Californians.” The resolution name-checked Newsom, noting that the Governor “called for a windfall profit tax to put record oil profits back in Californians’ pockets.”
Related: Robert Reich, former U.S. Labor Secretary and co-founder of the Economic Policy Institute, is also a stan for the Governor’s plan:
2. Meanwhile, Big Oil Execs Snub The California Energy Commission.
“To say that I’m disappointed that some of our biggest oil producers in the state are not here is probably an understatement,” Senator Monique Limón told The Sacramento Bee’s Maggie Angst after each of the five biggest oil producers in California—Chevron, Marathon, PBF Energy, Phillips 66 and Valero—“ghosted” a California Energy Commission hearing yesterday on gas price spikes in the state. At the hearing, one Commissioner called the record prices Californians are facing at the pump “unconscionable.”
Governor Newsom chose a different adjective—“pathetic”—to describe oil executives “refusing to show up” at the hearing to explain to consumers why “oil companies saw a 1700% increase in profits this year while you paid record prices.” To hammer in the point, Newsom also tweeted out a video of the literal empty seats reserved for the industry execs:
And here is a great thread from Courthouse News reporter Natalie Hanson who live tweeted yesterday’s hearing, including this slide from Consumer Watchdog’s Jamie Court, “showing unprecedented windfall profits for Big Oil, some of which aren't even known yet.”
3. “Those gloves are off”.
Writing for The Ventura County Star, Tom Elias discusses how the windfall profits tax fight is upending the normally staid relationship between state lawmakers and big oil:
“For many months, there has been little or no doubt that California's five big gasoline refiners were gouging most of this state’s drivers “The question now is how much of a windfall profit tax to assess and whether to send that money directly back to people who fill their tanks regularly …
Returning [the windfall profits] would be one way to fight the inflation that has been fueled to a large degree by refiners. But until [lawmakers] passed the law demanding monthly per-gallon profit reports, legislators had always handled the oil companies with kid gloves. Now those gloves are off. We will know soon if the legislators really were serious, or whether they will quickly revert to being oil company lapdogs.”