Oct. 5, 2012 — District 1 Senator Ted Gaines (R-Rocklin) today called on California Governor Jerry Brown and state regulators to take any and all emergency measures available to them to stop the massive spike in California gasoline prices.   

“This overnight price explosion is killing California families and businesses, and we cannot afford one more day,” said Gaines.  “The California Air Resources Board needs to immediately suspend the special ‘summer blend’ requirement so we can import more gas now. We need to defer the gasoline excise tax — not in a week or a month but this very minute.”

Several unrelated supply disruptions are ostensibly behind the unprecedented price jump, which saw prices shoot above $5 a gallon in many areas of the state. It is unclear when normal supplies will again be available.  Regardless, Gaines saw the price spikes as part of a larger problem in California.

“California is wildly overtaxed and overregulated, and it makes everything in our state artificially expensive, even when things are working right. When something goes wrong, it shoots prices into the stratosphere,” he said. “That is not fair to families. We are regulating and taxing them into poverty.”