The federal government is supreme in regulating interstate commerce (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3). Fact, end of story!
But California is a law unto itself, free to screw up states that have the unhappy circumstance of sharing a border with it. In a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday 5/14, Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo stated the obvious: California policies are jacking up fuel prices for Nevadans as well as Californios (see #1 below). You see, much of Nevada’s western fuel market is fed by refineries and pipelines from California, businesses under the thumb of that state’s multifarious politburos.
Newsom responded to Lombardo in the lingua franca of today’s hard-left Democratic Party by saying that Lombardo is a lackey of “Big Oil”. As if parroting the editor of the Daily Worker (1924-1941, official newspaper of the Communist Party USA), Newsom said, “. . . [Lombardo] knows full well that oil refiners are driving up gas prices and making massive profits . . ..” There’s not much room for the CPUSA in our national political corral since that space is increasingly monopolized by the DNC, especially their California affiliate.
Apparently, according to Newsom, refiners are only greedy bloodsuckers in California, and in a few other states acting as cheap knockoffs of the not-so-golden state. The highest retail gas prices by state are all Democrat fiefdoms. The prices (as of 5/16/2024) range from California’s average of $5.24/gal. to Mississippi’s $3.06. No red state rises above Idaho’s $3.83 (see #2 below). My Montana comes in at $3.48.
Following the Marxist template, as usual, is the Democrat supermajority in the state legislature as exemplified in the Newsom-signed state Senate Bill X1-2. The decree would establish a new commissariat to oversee these latest “malefactors of wealth” with power to investigate and recommend penalties to the state’s uber-commissariat, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).
That’ll do the trick. Just persecute by prosecution the people with whom you rely for your fuel. This won’t work, unless you believe in the efficacy and efficiency of a slave economy. Whips and chains and overseers aren’t the best way to get the most out of people. Unlike the mid-19th century’s era of chattel slavery in the old South, no Fugitive Salve Act exists to compel a people’s acceptance of involuntary servitude to Newsom and company. Flight is always an option, as it has been for the past few decades for the state’s middle class, families, and many businesses. What a time to be in the moving business, one of the few growth industries left in the state.
Never do these people look in the mirror. The state gets sanction from the federal government to exceed the Clean Air Act. More federalism? Not! California gets to throw around its market weight in the form of mammoth regulations, mandates, and taxes on refiners that clearly disrupts the interstate commerce in fuel. Just think, its EV mandate alone by 2035 will force the shipment of fuel onto electric big rigs – or electric trains that don’t exist – further ballooning costs and worsening efficiencies in an already California-tortured industry.
The fuel that flows down its pipelines doesn’t fare any better. It does so under the lash of the state’s immense panoply of eco-commissariats. For Nevadans, what comes out the other end is bloated in cost. Just drive on Interstate 15 up and away from California and you’ll see prices drop the more California recedes in the rear-view mirror. Test it out for yourself.
It would be a dereliction of duty on the part of Nevada’s governor to not look out for the interests of his state. Nevada, like all states, has a keen interest in reviving Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce, and end the unwitting delegation of that power to fanatics in Sacramento, if for no other reason than the need to avoid the collateral damage from California’s suicide attempt.
Go get ‘em Gov. Lombardo. And Congress, dump California’s exemption. If necessary, federal marshals should seize control of all the state’s ports and repeal the state’s interference in interstate commerce by truck, railroad, plane, ship, and pipeline. Keep California’s malign effects limited as much as possible to its residents, who regularly vote for the mess. No state should be forced to live under the political toxicity of another.
Remember, the U.S. Constitution guarantees to each state a republican form of government, not a California government – Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution.
RogerG
Sources:
1. “Lombardo to Newsom: Act now before gas prices get even higher”, KTNV staff (Las Vegas, Nv.), 5/14/2024, at https://www.ktnv.com/news/lombardo-to-newsom-act-now-before-gas-prices-get-even-higher
2. “Today’s Gas Prices By State”, Kelly Anne Smith and Korrena Bailie, Forbes, 5/16/2024, at https://www.forbes.com/advisor/personal-finance/gas-prices-by-state/#:~:text=California%20has%20the%20highest%20price%20of%20gas%2C%20with,average%20of%20%243.09%20per%20gallon%20of%20regular%20gas.