Wednesday, October 9, 2019, 8:57 pm | Randy Thomasson
If you’re like me, you’re concerned about high gas prices in California.
As someone who watches the stock market, I shake my head at how California’s Democrat-controlled government somehow keeps the average price of regular gas above $4 per gallon, when oil prices are low, and when most other states enjoy much lower prices.
So, to help you and your family, here are SaveCalifornia.com’s 5 ways to fight against high gas prices:
2. Drive less if you can, by driving more for your needs than your wants. This will likely mean combining errands. Sometimes this will mean changing where you buy goods and services. And might mean buying more online.
4. When voting, don’t for an environmental activist candidate or ballot measure, because you’ll be supporting a lower supply of energy and higher energy prices (as well as higher prices for housing, food, and water).
5. Remember that Democrats have controlled the California State Legislature for 60 years. They caused and are still causing your high energy prices.
Why are gasoline prices so high in California?
California’s Democrat politicians, with the help of self-interested government unions, are devoted to big, expensive government, as well as to liberal environmental activists who regard dirt and trees as more important than people made in the image of God and people’s private property. The Democrat politicians have imposed the highest state gas tax in the nation: $1.26 a gallon (98 cents in gas taxes and gas fees, plus a 28-cent “mystery tax”).
California’s Democrat-run government forces gasoline to be more expensive to formulate, which is another disincentive to oil refineries trying to do business here:
“For many years, California also required that summer-blend gasoline — which is more expensive to produce and contains extra additives designed to reduce air pollution in the summer — be used all year round. So, while gasoline prices typically fall in September across the United States as stations switch to the cheaper winter blend, Californians were left paying higher prices. In 2012, around the time gasoline prices were breaking records, Governor Jerry Brown changed the regulations to permit winter-blend gasoline to be sold in California in an attempt to bring down rising gasoline prices. Still, both the summer and winter blends of gasoline used in California are more expensive to produce than those used in any other state.” “California Is Approaching $4 Gasoline, But It Has Only Itself To Blame,” Forbes, Sept. 28, 2018
In 2017, the Democrat-controlled California Energy Commission crowed about no new refineries and no new refineries:
“Permitting Issues. It is unlikely that new refineries will be built in California. In fact, from 1985 to 1995, 10 California refineries closed, resulting in a 20 percent reduction in refining capacity. Further refinery closures are expected for small refineries with capacities of less than 50,000 barrels per day. The cost of complying with environmental regulations and low product prices will continue to make it difficult to continue operating older, less efficient refineries.”Source
And the Democrat politicians have also prohibited interstate oil pipelines into California, thus decreasing the supply, increasing the demand, and jacking up the price of gas for us all:
“With no major pipelines connecting California to its neighbors, the state remains largely untouched by the shale boom. While refiners in the Midwest and Gulf Coast are awash in cheap, American crude, those in California are paying as much as $6 more per barrel for oil shipped from Saudi Arabia, Ecuador and Colombia. That’s taken a toll on California pump prices, which were 61 cents higher per gallon last year than the national average.” Source: Bloomberg.com
I hope you benefit from this information and will share it with others. California’s high gas prices are a negative consequence of our bad state government. When voters revolt against the establishment, this can change. In the meantime, let’s save on gas where we can.
When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29:2
Do you remember that when our U.S. founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, they pledged “our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor”?
Do you remember that John Adams said that the price of liberty was “a great expense of blood,” and that 25,000 Americans died to purchase the United States of America for you?
Ask yourself, what are you willing to do (which will not require the shedding of blood) to recover the Constitution they gave you, and to publicly represent the moral standards God gave you?
“The object is great which we have in view, and we must expect a great expense of blood to obtain it. But we should always remember, that a free constitution of civil government cannot be purchased at too dear a rate, as there is nothing, on this side [of] the new Jerusalem, of equal importance to mankind.” John Adams, 2nd U.S. President, on July 1, 1776
July 3, 1776 letters from John Adams to his wife, Abigail Adams: “The furnace of affliction produces refinement, in states as well as individuals. And the new governments we are assuming, in every part, will require a purification from our vices and an augmentation of our virtues or they will be no blessings. The people will have unbounded power. And the people are extremely addicted to corruption and venality, as well as the great.” Source
“It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.” Source
Sunday, February 24, 2019, 1:50 pm | Randy Thomasson
It was a privilege to rally with around 250 California conservatives Feb. 23 on the steps of the State Capitol.
Rally speakers accurately blamed new Gov. Gavin Newsom and other immoral Democrat politicians for the chronic problems in California, and I held up a large sign warning that “Gov. Newsom wants to jack up your taxes and fees.” See the short video (2:20) of speaker Erin Cruz and then see me walking up with my powerful sign.
Because Newsom has already proposed taxing your drinking water. And Newsom’s also threatening Californians with new taxes on currently untaxed small business services (pool cleaning, lawn care, house cleaning, etc.) as well as threatening job-providers that own commercial property with higher property taxes (eliminating Proposition 13’s protections).
The election of the uber-liberal Gavin Newsom has stunned, angered, and awakened California conservatives. And rightfully concerned they are, because of Newsom’s dreams of taxing drinking water and imposing new taxes on very small businesses and upon job-providers who own commercial property. Gavin Newsom is proving once again that Democrat politicians aren’t ‘for the poor,’ but that Democrats make you poor.
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