California
As Newsom urges refinery controls, California regulators consider hike in gas prices
As Gov. Gavin Newsom wages a high-profile campaign to prevent sudden spikes in gasoline prices, California air regulators are quietly pushing through a policy change of their own that could raise pump prices by almost a half-dollar a gallon or more.
Newsom recently called a special legislative session to consider controversial new controls on state oil refineries, and the California Air Resources Board — the state agency tasked with regulating planet-warming emissions — soon will consider stricter limits on the carbon intensity of fuels.
In September of last year, CARB estimated that the change could lift gasoline prices 47 cents a gallon, or $6.4 billion a year.
Other analysts put the price even higher — 65 cents a gallon, or $8.8 million a year.
Now, as CARB nears a November vote on its low carbon fuel standard, or LCFS, the agency is backing away from its price hike forecast. Recently, an air board official told legislators that the 47-cents-a-gallon estimate was just a “snapshot” based on a forecasting model that “can never capture real world conditions.” However, the agency has refused to offer a revised estimate to the public.
Legislators from both parties are now voicing frustration over what they say is CARB’s troubling lack of transparency.
Some legislators are questioning whether the air board has become too powerful and requires more oversight from elected officials.
“For me, this special session has been about ensuring that gas prices are going down,” said Assemblymember Corey Jackson (D-Perris). “And certainly, if CARB is creating regulations that will increase gas prices, we’re going to have to take a look at that and see if we have to rein in their authority.”
What concerns him most, Jackson said, is the board’s resistance to acknowledging the consumer costs of its forthcoming policies. “The increased quality of our air may be worth higher prices,” he said, but he doesn’t understand how keeping forecasts under wraps encourages public debate over government policy.
Assemblymember Joe Patterson (R-Rocklin) shares Jackson’s concern. “Maybe the cost is worth it because we’ll have cleaner air,” he said. “But how do you make informed decisions if you don’t want to know about all the possible outcomes?”
He also questioned the timing of the special session. “It just feels like the governor is more concerned about sticking it to the oil companies than he is about the actual costs of gasoline.”
Assemblymember Blanca Rubio (D-Baldwin Park) was traveling and unavailable for an interview, but emailed the following: “While the Legislature is currently working to address petroleum price spikes through the public process, it is unfortunate CARB is unwilling to provide an estimate of the monetary impacts amendments to the LCFS will have. This process is intended to be public and collaborative, but the Legislature will struggle to make significant positive impacts to fuel prices if CARB is unwilling to address the role their regulations play in determining prices.”
The air board’s November vote centers on amendments to the LCFS, a carbon market program that took effect in 2011. The program penalizes refineries that make high carbon fuel, such as diesel and gasoline, and benefits makers of lower carbon fuels such as renewable diesel.
The amendents would impose far stricter limits on the carbon intensity of fuels, leading to far higher costs for refineries to buy credits to comply with the law. Extra costs are passed through to consumers at the pump. But the air board won’t will talk about how much that might be.
CARB chief Steven Cliff says the agency won’t be forecasting the effects of climate policy on gasoline prices.
(Associated Press)
CARB’s chief, Steven Cliff, told The Times that no new numbers will be forthcoming because “what we are not equipped to do is analyze what the effect would be on retail gasoline prices.” Instead, “we look at all the economic impacts” including economic growth, job creation and public health.
On that basis, Cliff said, the amendments are a net positive for Californians.
Asked whether estimating fuel costs and releasing the figures might help inform public policy, Cliff said: “We put out the analysis that is mandated by law.”
CARB critics believe fuel price transparency is required so lawmakers can weigh climate policy trade-offs and ultimately answer to their constituents.
It’s not only legislators who are concerned about CARB’s approach, however.
Danny Cullenward is a carbon markets expert and vice chair of California’s Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee. He’s the analyst that used data also available to the air board to come up with his estimate of per-gallon costs up to 65 cents in the near term and possibly much higher in the long term for policies under the air board’s consideration.
Cullenward said CARB needs to release more information, and that the air board in November will be making an “opaque regulatory decision that will take place three days after the election,” when media attention will be elsewhere.
On Monday, Cullenward released a paper written for the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania on the fuel standards issue. “Rather than discuss these implications openly, the regulator has distanced itself from its own initial assessment of costs,” he wrote.
Cullenward is considered a champion of carbon reduction, but sometimes takes flak when he questions the efficacy of some carbon market programs. The air board’s fuel standards policies, he believes, favor lower-carbon biofuels over far cleaner electrification of transportation.
He’s not surprised that the Legislature is suddenly paying more attention to CARB. Although the fuels program “is regularly reviewed and updated every few years, it has not been guided by specific legislation since implementation — despite its evolution into a multi-billion-dollar market with substantial environmental and economic consequences,” he wrote in his paper.
That could change.
“I think you’re going to start seeing a greater discussion about our willingness to give our authority to CARB’s executives, and even rein in the powers we’ve given away in the past,” said Jackson, the assembly member.
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As the nation prepares for its 250th Independence Day celebration, a decades-long California Fourth of July fireworks tradition that has raised millions for local children’s programs is going dark this year after the California Coastal Commission rejected a final effort to keep it alive, citing environmental concerns to protect the bay.
“We’ve raised over the past 14 years $2 million for kids programs here in Long Beach,” event organizer John Morris told Fox News Digital, adding the July 3 event is fully funded by the local community.
“This community pays for everything — everything. City fees, and the city doesn’t give us a break. We pay $20,000 to the city for police and fire, which I’m fine with, because there’s 100,000 people enjoying the fireworks,” said Morris, a Long Beach resident and business owner.
Morris, who owns the Boathouse on the Bay restaurant, had planned a scaled-up fireworks display this year to mark America’s 250th Independence Day.
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Long Beach residents have enjoyed the fireworks organized by John Morris for over a decade. (Scott Varley/MediaNews Group/Torrance Daily Breeze via Getty Images)
In January, Coastal Commission staff rejected the proposal, and last week commissioners unanimously upheld that decision despite an appeal backed by local, state and federal officials.
Regulators warned Morris last year that 2025 would likely be the final year for fireworks at the event, as they continue pushing organizers to switch to drone shows they say are more environmentally friendly.
The decision stands in contrast to other approvals by the commission, including a permit granted to SeaWorld allowing up to 40 nights of fireworks.
“They get 40 nights in Mission Bay. All I’m asking for is 20 minutes — it doesn’t make any sense,” Morris said.
Morris, 78, also pushed back on the environmental concerns cited by the commission, pointing to years of testing around the event.
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Due to the lack of fireworks, Morris has decided to cancel the July 3rd celebration.
“We’ve had 10 years of environmental studies,” Morris said. “We test the water before and after the fireworks and send a robotic camera into the bay to check for debris — there’s never been any. It’s been spotless.
“We’ve also had eight years of bird reports to make sure we’re not harming wildlife. We’ve never had an issue. We’ve never been written up one time. So what is it really about?”
Joshua Smith, a spokesman for the California Coastal Commission, told Fox News Digital that permits are determined on a case-by-case basis, citing environmental concerns to “protect the bay.”
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Organizer John Morris said environmental studies are regularly conducted to measure the impact of the fireworks show on the bay. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Smith said Morris was approved for a permit to hold a drone show in lieu of fireworks. Morris told Fox News Digital such a show would cost about $200,000 — roughly four times more than traditional fireworks.
Smith confirmed that SeaWorld received a permit allowing 40 nights of fireworks. When pressed on the discrepancy, he reiterated that decisions are made individually and declined to provide further details.
Morris said the loss of the fireworks show will be felt across the community, from local businesses to families who have made the event an annual tradition.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — In the wide-open race for California governor, billionaire Tom Steyer is on a spending binge.
The hedge fund manager-turned-liberal activist is using his personal fortune to saturate TV screens and mobile phones with advertising, while his competitors accuse him of trying to use his vast wealth to buy the state’s most powerful job.
Steyer’s ads — in which he promises to bring down household costs or rails against federal immigration raids — appear inescapable at times in heavily Democratic Los Angeles, the state’s largest media market. Data compiled by advertising tracker AdImpact show Steyer has spent or booked over $115 million in ads for broadcast TV, cable and radio — nearly 30 times the amount of his nearest Democratic rival.
If he makes it through the June 2 primary election, Steyer could easily eclipse the 2010 record set by Republican Meg Whitman, who spent $178.5 million in a losing bid for governor, much of it her own money. At the time, it was the costliest campaign for statewide office in the nation’s history.
Even when ad buys from all his major competitors are combined, along with ad purchases by independent committees supporting candidates, Steyer is outspending the field by tens of millions of dollars.
“Billionaire money is flooding our state in an attempt to buy this election,” former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, one of Steyer’s chief rivals, warned her supporters this month.
Mail-in ballots are set to go out to voters next month. Steyer is among a crowd of candidates hoping to seize a spotlight after former Democratic U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell’s dramatic departure from the race following sexual assault allegations that he denies.
But while Steyer has ticked up in polling amid his spending splurge, he has not broken away from the field, leaving some wondering if he’s getting value for his dollars.
“If your first round of ads doesn’t move you dramatically (in the polls), the third, fourth, fifth, six, seventh and eighth rounds won’t either,” said veteran Democratic strategist Bill Carrick, who for years advised the late Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. “There is something inherently holding Steyer back.”
In recent prior campaigns for governor, at this stage a leading candidate was taking control of the race. This year, voters appear to be shrugging at a contest that lacks a star candidate among seven leading Democrats and two Republicans.
“Somehow the campaign is frozen,” Carrick added.
History shows that money doesn’t always translate into votes.
Billionaire developer Rick Caruso spent over $100 million in 2022 in his bid to become Los Angeles mayor, much of it his own money, but he was handily defeated by Mayor Karen Bass, who spent a fraction of Caruso’s total. Billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent more than $1 billion of his own money on his 2020 presidential bid before dropping out. And Steyer’s money was unable to lift him into contention in the 2020 presidential contest, when he dropped out early in the year after a poor finish in the South Carolina primary.
Steyer has never held elected office.
In a 2019 interview with The Associated Press, Steyer was asked what he would say to people who think he’s trying to buy the presidency.
“I don’t think that’s possible,” Steyer said at the time, before adding, “I’m never going to apologize for succeeding in business. That’s America, right?”
His campaign did not respond directly when asked about similar criticism facing his run for governor.
“Tom now stands as the only Democrat with the grassroots energy, institutional backing and resources to advance to the general election,” spokesperson Kevin Liao said in a statement.
The governor’s race was recently reordered by two developments: Swalwell, a leading Democrat, abruptly withdrew from the race then resigned from Congress, following sexual assault allegations. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump endorsed conservative commentator Steve Hilton.
Still, there is no clear leader.
Polling in late March and early April by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found a cluster of candidates in close competition: Democrats Steyer and Porter, Republicans Hilton and Chad Bianco, and Swalwell. Other candidates were trailing. The polling was conducted before Swalwell withdrew.
Democrats have feared the party’s large number of candidates could lead to them getting shut out of the general election in November. That’s because California has a primary system in which only the top two vote-getters advance to the general election, regardless of party.
Leading Democrats are all claiming to have picked up support since Swalwell’s exit. Steyer nabbed one plum endorsement, when the influential California Teachers Association, which previously backed Swalwell, recommended him.
In his ads, Steyer promises to “abolish” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has been staging raids across California. In another, he laments the state’s punishing cost of housing, “Everybody needs an affordable place to live,” he says.
Rapper was stabbed 16 times by fellow inmate in May 2025 while 10-year sentence in Megan Thee Stallion shooting case
Tory Lanez has filed a $100 million lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections stemming from a May 2025 incident where the rapper was stabbed in prison.
Lanez — born Daystar Peterson and currently serving a 10-year sentence after being found guilty in the Megan Thee Stallion shooting case — also sued the warden and guards at the California Correctional Institute in Tehachapi, where the rapper was stabbed 16 times in an “unprovoked life-threatening attack” by another inmate, the lawsuit states.
Peterson was hospitalized following the May 2025 incident, suffering a collapsed lung among stab wounds to his back, torso, and head.
According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit criticized the Department of Corrections for housing Peterson with fellow inmate and alleged attacker Santino Casio, who was serving a life sentence for second-degree murder. “The choice to house Casio with Peterson was known or should have been a known danger,” the lawsuit said, adding that Tory Lanez’ “high-profile celebrity status” made him a target.
The lawsuit also said that prison guards were slow to respond to the shanking, and didn’t employ flash grenades or other measures to halt Casio’s attack.; Casio was not charged for stabbing Peterson, the Associated Press notes.
Lanez, who following his hospitalization was transferred to San Luis Obispo County’s California Men’s Colony, also alleges in the lawsuit that he never received his possessions from the California Correctional Institute in Tehachapi, including songbooks filled with lyrics to his unreleased music.
Lanez is serving a 10-year prison sentence for shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot during a confrontation in the summer of 2020. He was eventually convicted on several firearms charges, including assault with a firearm, in December 2022. In November 2025, his appeal was denied by a three-judge panel, and the 10-year sentence was upheld.
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