oil and gas

Next year, California voters will have a chance to decide whether new oil drilling regulations should take effect. Oil industry officials warn that, if enacted, it could hinder production and force California to look elsewhere for its supply.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom accuses the oil industry of price gouging on gasoline prices and wants to impose penalties on excess profits. But he didn't fare well in the first hearing for the proposal.

Sacramento and Palo Alto offered up a tale of two California energy policies Wednesday as legislators considered the best way to stick it to Big Oil and Gov. Gavin Newsom talked up Tesla’s expansion plans. The two events reflected two contrasting — arguably, contradictory — policy imperatives that the state faces:  That was highlighted at […]

Today, four months after Gov. Gavin Newsom called upon the Legislature to tax the excess profits of oil producers in California, we may finally get some details about the proposal. Or we might not.  A Senate committee is slated to hold its first hearing on the “windfall profits penalty” proposed by the governor and introduced […]

At a Tuesday hearing, regulators and industry representatives discussed the causes of high natural gas prices in California and what can be done to shield residents from high bills.

To reduce gas prices, Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed a tax on the oil industry's excess profits, but that won't necessarily help. California lawmakers should instead take a closer look at how refiners use maintenance shutdowns for their benefit.

Welcome to 2023 — a year that will likely prove decisive in California’s attempts to address some of its most pervasive challenges, ranging from housing and homelessness to climate change. Wednesday, state lawmakers are set to return to Sacramento (though some may be driving instead of flying Southwest as they usually would) to resume the […]

Note: The newsletter will pause until Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023. Happy holidays and happy New Year! If you were reading the text of the California Constitution on Wednesday — as one does — you would have noticed a new line: “The state shall not deny or interfere with an individual’s reproductive freedom in their most […]

Most of the remaining loose ends from California’s Nov. 8 election were tied up Monday — though at least one especially close race appears to remain unresolved and election battles from 2020 and 2024 continue to intensify. First, Democrat Christy Holstege conceded her bid for an open state Assembly seat stretching across Riverside and San […]

A new California Legislature with a record number of women and plenty of new faces is sworn into office. Gov. Gavin Newsom immediately gives them the outline of a controversial penalty on oil industry profits.