Los Angeles drivers are paying $100 to fill a tank while Sacramento insists a spreadsheet proves they are saving money.
The lone Republican on the Los Angeles City Council says the rest of America has been watching the wrong problem.
What the LA GOP chair said about ruby red states will make you stop and read it twice.
California Gas Tax Is the Highest in the Nation and Newsom Just Rejected a Holiday
California's gas taxes and environmental regulations add roughly $1.50 per gallon above the national average — every fill-up, every commute, every errand.
LA City Councilman John Lee – the only elected non-Democrat in the entire city – knows exactly why.
"Historically, California has always been either the first- or second-most expensive price of gas in this country," Lee said, "and that is because of the highest taxes and fees that we put on as a government."
Gavin Newsom's office declined Fox News Digital's interview request and redirected reporters to the California Energy Commission.
The CEC issued a statement claiming its refinery oversight laws saved Californians $9.3 billion compared to 2022.
Lee wasn't buying it.
"They're going to have to show me where we are saving money," he said. "All you have to do is look up at the price of gas."
When gas in California cracked $6 a gallon this spring, Newsom rejected calls for even a temporary gas tax holiday.
His answer: it wouldn't guarantee savings reached consumers.
Chapman University professor Joel Kotkin has tracked California's economic collapse for decades.
His explanation for why $8 gas exists is simple: Sacramento deliberately destroyed the industry that could have prevented it.
"We had a thriving oil industry in California," Kotkin said. "California was one of the big exporters of oil in the 30s and 40s. We have a lot of oil potential, but the problem is we have an administration that consistently has been trying to destroy the industry."
LA GOP Chair Roxanne Hoge laid out what California threw away.
"California is sitting on unbelievable oil and gas energy reserves," she said. "We should be like Alaska, where citizens get checks because we are selling so much oil to the rest of the country and the world. And we're not. And that lays squarely at the feet of the Democrats in Sacramento."
California has run as a Democratic trifecta – controlling the governor's office and both legislative chambers – for over 21 consecutive years.
Kotkin's verdict: "In California, there's no need to moderate."
How the California EV Mandate Controlled Car Buying in 12 Other States
The $8 gas is not a California problem.
Under the Clean Air Act, California holds something no other state has – the legal authority to set vehicle emissions standards that the entire American auto industry must follow.
Manufacturers build one fleet to California's rules.
Whatever California environmental bureaucrats mandate in Sacramento gets baked into the price and design of every car sold in Tulsa, Birmingham, and Boise.
Twelve states and Washington, DC already adopted California's zero-emission vehicle mandate before Trump moved to kill it – a mandate requiring 100% electric vehicle sales by 2035.
Together those states governed more than 30 percent of the entire US auto market under Sacramento's directives.
Hoge has been warning about this for years.
"What happens in California does not stay in California," she said. "The crazy bills that are passed, whether it's CAFE standards or nutty equity requirements for education or gas standards and electric car mandates, they're all coming for you. We're such a big state by population that all those mandates are being taken up by producers. Whether you live in a ruby red state or not, you're going to suffer if you don't help us out."
Whether you live in a ruby red state or not.
Newsom doesn't need to win your state's election to run your state's auto market.
He needs his regulations large enough that manufacturers have no choice but to build to them – and then sell those same cars in every other state.
Twelve states handed him that power voluntarily.
California One-Party Rule Has No Off Switch and No State Line
Kotkin doesn't see any political mechanism inside California to stop it.
"The Republicans have given up California," he said. "If you have a one-party state, it's very hard to change anything, and nobody is accountable."
Sacramento is already sitting on an unfunded pension liability Hoge puts at "well over a trillion dollars."
A government that racks up a trillion dollars in hidden debt, charges families $8 a gallon, hands them a spreadsheet showing savings, and faces zero consequences does not stop at a state border.
The families paying $100 fill-ups in Los Angeles are the case study.
The families in Ohio, Texas, and Tennessee paying more for every new car because Sacramento mandated it are the proof.
Newsom built a machine designed to govern people who never voted for him.
It is already running in your state.
Sources:
- Kristen Altus and Alba Cuebas-Fantauzzi, "California's 'abusive relationship' with one-party rule is crushing families, 'coming for you,' critics warn," Fox Business, May 8, 2026.
- "Trump Rescinds California's Emission Waivers: What It Means for the Future of EV Mandates," Seyfarth Shaw LLP, June 17, 2025.
- "US Senate blocks California's electric car mandate in historic vote," CalMatters, May 22, 2025.
- "Party control of California state government," Ballotpedia, 2026.
- "With California Gas Above $6, Gavin Newsom Rejects Green Tax Holiday," Newsweek, May 9, 2026.