California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s attempt to blame high gasoline prices on everyone but Sacramento hit a wall this week during a CNN segment focused on the state’s spiraling fuel costs.
CNN analyst Harry Enten broke down why California drivers are paying some of the highest gasoline prices in the country, pointing to the state’s taxes and fees, California’s unique fuel requirements, and other state specific costs that have made the market more expensive and more fragile:
Oh my goodness on California’s gas prices: the nation’s highest.
1 reason? Cali’s gas tax/fees are nation’s highest, & the gap between Cali & the avg. state is way up per CNN’s partner @USAFacts.
Most Cali voters say Cali’s standards for energy/gas aren’t worth added costs. pic.twitter.com/E2tN2TVseS
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) May 5, 2026
California Taxes and Fees Pushing Prices Higher
The segment prompted Newsom to push back sharply after the network’s analyst highlighted the obvious: California’s gasoline prices are not simply the product of national or global forces. They are also the result of policy choices made in Sacramento.
That reality is increasingly difficult for Newsom to explain away.
As CNN noted, California’s gasoline market faces costs that other states do not. The California Energy Commission’s own gasoline price breakdown shows that state specific climate programs added 43 cents per gallon in February 2026, including about 20 cents from the Low Carbon Fuel Standard and 23 cents from Cap-and-Trade. The state excise tax alone is currently 61.2 cents per gallon, on top of the federal excise tax of 18.4 cents:
Source: California Energy Commission, Accessed 5/5/26
Decades of Failed Policies Turned California Into an Energy Island
But taxes and fees are only part of the story. California is also a fuel island.
Unlike many states, California is geographically and logistically isolated from the country’s major refining hubs. There is no major pipeline connecting the Gulf Coast refining system to the West Coast. The state also requires a special gasoline blend that is more expensive to produce and limits the pool of replacement fuel that can be brought in quickly during outages or shortages.
That isolation becomes especially painful when in state refining capacity shrinks.
California has already lost significant refining capacity, and more pressure is coming. Phillips 66 moved to close its Los Angeles area refinery, while Valero has ended fuel production at its Benicia refinery, a facility that processed roughly 145,000 barrels per day. Reuters has reported that the Phillips 66 closure, together with Valero’s planned Benicia shutdown, have reportedly cut almost 20 percent of California’s gasoline supply.
Making matters worse for California, a new Los Angeles Times report shows the state is already bracing for further major supply challenges after Middle East shipments were disrupted, demonstrating the exactly how vulnerable the state is.
According to the report, the last California bound tanker to pass through the Strait of Hormuz before the disruption was recently unloading 2 million barrels of crude at the Port of Long Beach:
“In two weeks, the Hong Kong-flagged tanker will have fully unloaded at the Marathon Petroleum terminal and departed again for distant waters. After that, California must figure out how to replace some 200,000 barrels of oil a day that will no longer be arriving from the Persian Gulf.”
The report notes that California imports about 75 percent of its oil from foreign countries and Alaska, and that the state’s declining crude production and shrinking refining capacity have increased its dependence on imports.
The gasoline side is just as concerning. The Los Angeles Times reported that California imported about 10 percent of its gasoline in 2024, but that figure has now climbed to 20 percent following the Valero Benicia refinery going idle, the Phillips 66 Wilmington refinery going offline, and the PBF Martinez refinery remaining down.
That vulnerability was reinforced at today’s California Assembly energy oversight hearing. Committee Chair Cottie Petrie-Norris opened by citing the same Port of Long Beach tanker and warning: “When this tanker is empty, it’s unclear where the next ship will be coming from.” The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) urged lawmakers to confront the structural problems behind California’s fuel vulnerability, including the need to maintain enough in-state capacity to respond when disruptions hit. WSPA also warned Sacramento to “stop believing” that outsourcing the state’s energy needs will solve the problem.
Newsom’s Hypocrisy
None of these facts represent the clean, resilient, “affordable” energy future Newsom likes to describe on national television.
It also undercuts one of Newsom’s favorite talking points. California has spent years claiming it is leading the nation away from oil and gas, but the state has not eliminated demand. It has instead replaced in state production and refining with longer supply chains, higher costs, and greater dependence on foreign and out-of-state sources.
Newsom himself acknowledged this problem in 2020:
“As it relates to managing decline, we’ve got to address the issue of demand. California since 1985 has declined its production by 60 percent, but we’ve only seen a modest decrease in demand by 4.4 percent. Sixty percent decline in production, but only a 4.4 percent decline in demand. And that means we are making up for a lack of domestic production from Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, and Colombia. And that’s hardly an environmental solution when you look globally.” [Emphasis Added]
This reliance on foreign imports has only grown, as the Los Angeles Times pointed out this week:
The top California gasoline suppliers by far are South Korea, the Bahamas and India. As with oil, the shipments have continued to arrive through April, but that’s set to change.
South Korea has virtually suspended jet fuel shipments and cut back exports of gasoline and diesel. India has raised export duties on finished fuel products and is also sending out less. “We’re seeing very little on the water heading to the West Coast,” said Smith.
The Bahamas, where gasoline from the U.S. Gulf Coast gets rerouted, might pick up some of the slack, but how much remains to be seen. “There’s just a big question mark about where gasoline is going to be pulling in from next,” said Smith.
In 2024, nearly 64 percent of the oil used in California refineries came from foreign countries, according to the California Energy Commission. In 1985, nearly 62 percent came from California.
This is the central contradiction Newsom cannot spin away. California still consumes large amounts of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and other petroleum products, but state policy has made it harder and more expensive to produce and refine those fuels close to home.
None of this means global oil prices do not matter. However, California’s problem is that every global shock is amplified by state specific vulnerabilities. When supply tightens, California cannot easily pull large volumes of replacement fuel from the rest of the country. When refineries go offline, the state has fewer facilities left to absorb the disruption. When imports are needed, they often travel longer distances through more expensive routes.
BOTTOM LINE: California is the definition of a broken energy market, and it is why Newsom’s blame shifting rings hollow. He can attack oil and gas companies on CNN, in Munich, or anywhere else, but California still needs affordable and reliable transportation fuel.
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