California lawmakers pounce on energy board amid departing oil refineries: "We have a crisis on our hands"
Concern over rising gas prices and fleeing gas refineries has California lawmakers wondering if the state's gas crisis is getting worse because of them.
It comes on the heels of two more refineries announcing they will end production.
As Tai Milder, the director of the Division of Petroleum Market Oversight, testified with statistics explaining California gas price spikes, Democratic Assemblymember Connie Petrie-Norris, also the chair of the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee, interrupted him.
"Sorry to interrupt you, director," Petrie-Norris said. "I guess I'm just a little confused. So if California companies were raking it in, why did we just have two refineries announce their intent to close?"
These lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats, pounced on this California Energy Commission and Air Resources Board panel, asking if they were sending California into a greater gas crisis.
"We have a crisis on our hands that may have been self-created by the actions that have been taken, perhaps by the state, by regulators," Democratic Assemblymember David Alvarez said.
"I'm still having a hard time, in terms of price manipulation, so can you help me with that?" Democratic Assemblymember Mike Gipson said.
"I know what leadership does not look like and that is $10 gas," Democratic Assemblymember Petrie-Norris said.
The energy committee is turning its attention from gas companies to regulators as two more refineries announced closures in the past year, leading to a looming 20% reduction in the state's gas supply.
Severin Borenstein is a UC Berkeley professor and director of the Energy Institute at Haas. He said prices could go up in dollars per gallon.
"I think if we are not prepared for the closure of these two refineries, we could see a very abrupt increase in prices," Borenstein said. "That is a real threat right now. California needs to get out ahead of it. This is a fire drill, this is not a long-term planning problem."
The gas supply problem comes as California regulators have designed policies to remove gas-powered cars from the roads to reduce pollution.
The Senate voted last week to revoke three vehicle emissions waivers in California.
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