Governor Gavin Newsom said Thursday that he plans on putting a stop to the skyrocketing price of gas in California, potentially setting up a new battle between state legislators and oil companies.
Gas stations in the Bay Area are up some 60 and 70 cents a gallon just in the last few days. Throughout California, the average price of gas went up 14 cents a gallon overnight -- prices high enough to get drivers and politicians, on both sides of the aisle, angry.
"It seems like the rest of the country has a way to figure out how to keep gas prices at a normal level, so that frustrates me,” said commuter Thad Schatz.
Newsom talked up his recently-created oversight body with power to subpoena oil companies.
The question he wants answers is why the gap between gas prices in California and the national average is now more than $2 a gallon?
"People are pissed off, as am I, about being ripped off by the oil companies,” he said. "Asking about information that now we have access to because of that legislation to subpoena from the oil companies to get to the bottom of why they're ripping you off, they're ripping off taxpayers in this state."
But oil companies have a very different view.
"I think we have the highest set of taxes and fees of anyplace else in the nation," said Tom Robinson, chairman of Robinson Oil.
Companies claim prices are higher in California, because of what they have to pay in taxes.
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"I think the governor needs to look in the mirror, and recognize the impact the state, and the regulations, and their agencies, and their politicians, have contributed to the situation," said Robinson.
Back on the theme of uniting both sides of the political aisle, Republican legislators in California wrote a letter to Newsom Thursday, asking the governor to call a special session of the legislature, to temporarily suspend California's gas tax.
