Gov. Newsom’s Orwellian plan to penalize the oil companies

  • 📰 ladailynews
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 39 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 19%
  • Publisher: 59%

United States News News

United States United States Latest News,United States United States Headlines

Opinion: Gov. Newsom’s Orwellian plan to penalize the oil companies

The 1970s were a long time ago. It might be hard to imagine, or remember, what it was like back then. So, I’ll paint you a picture: Inflation was skyrocketing, costs were soaring, Iran was in turmoil and the United States was in proxy war with Russia over the latter’s invasion of a neighboring nation.

The governor’s proposal would impose a “maximum gross gasoline refining margin” of a yet-to-be-determined number of cents per gallon. If a refiner exceeds the margin, the California Energy Commission can impose a civil penalty that will be deposited into the “Price Gouging Penalty Fund” that will supposedly refund the money back to consumers.

There is also a question of whether this “civil penalty” is, in fact, a tax. When Newsom first introduced the idea in October, he referred to his proposal several times as a “windfall tax.” But somewhere between then and when he unveiled his proposal last week, his tax had become a “penalty.” The reason for this is clear: thanks to Proposition 13, any tax increase must be approved by two-thirds of the Legislature.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 332. in US

United States United States Latest News, United States United States Headlines