How California governor hopefuls would lower gas and energy bills
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Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Cost of living issues are top of mind, so we grilled the candidates for governor on how they plan to get costs down.
The big picture: Ballots are out for the June 2 primary, and we asked you for questions for the contenders.
- Two questions focused on utility costs and gas prices, which have both skyrocketed this year.
We got responses from Democratic businessman Tom Steyer, fellow Dem and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and Republican political commentator Steve Hilton.
- Axios also reached out to Xavier Becerra, Chad Bianco, Katie Porter, Tony Thurmond and Antonio Villaraigosa but did not get a response.
Q: What specific steps would you take to lower gas prices in California?
Tom Steyer: Big Oil is holding California hostage, manufacturing supply shortages and rigging gas prices at the expense of working families.
- As governor, I'll use the state's existing executive authority to establish a hard legal ceiling on exactly how much profit refineries are allowed to make off a gallon of gas.
- I'll also work with the attorney general to launch an official investigation as to why Californians are charged more compared to the rest of the country.
Matt Mahan: I would focus on immediate relief and long-term affordability. First, I am the only Democrat calling to suspend the state gas tax during price spikes to give families real short-term relief.
- I would then reform how we fund road maintenance, so the burden does not fall disproportionately on working people and rural communities who have fewer transit options.
- EV owners, who are disproportionately higher-income, should pay their fair share for the roads they use too.
Steve Hilton: First of all, we need to stop our dependence on foreign oil when we have abundant reserves right here in California, sending a nice clean pipeline to the refiners of the coast.
- We also can reduce some of the overregulation on our refineries. We can reduce the cost through the cap and invest systems program, basically a tax on energy.
- And I would also like to see a suspension of the gas tax, at least while we've got elevated prices due to the war in the Middle East.
Q: How would you reduce electricity costs for Californians?
Steyer: As governor, I will break up monopoly power and create competition to lower prices by 25%.
- I'll do it by cutting the guaranteed profits that utilities make on investments, making the grid more competitive, and stopping costly investments.
- I'll also make data centers pay their own way.
Mahan: As governor, I would focus on three things: reliability, speed and accountability.
- First, we need to modernize the grid so it can support electrification, new housing, EV charging and clean energy without constantly driving up costs.
- Second, we need to fast-track clean energy and transmission projects. California has made it too slow and too expensive to build the very infrastructure we say we need. That means fixing permitting, cutting red tape and setting real timelines for approvals.
- Third, we need to hold utilities and state agencies accountable for results. Ratepayers should not be treated like a blank check for every delay, cost overrun or failure of long-term planning.
Hilton: We need to move away from an over-reliance on wind and solar.
- We need to turn up the dial on our natural gas power stations, because as a result of the move away from that, our utilities electric bills have doubled in the last 10 years.
- We've got a fleet of gas-fired power stations in California that are not running at their capacity because they're only used as backup for wind and solar.
- I think if we just made that one simple change of using our gas-fired power stations to full capacity, we could bring cuts to electric bills very quickly.
What's next: The top two vote getters, regardless of party, will advance to the November runoff.