Senator Brian Jones. (Photo: Kevin Sanders for California Globe)
Senate Enviro Committee Kills Bill to Repeal 65¢ Gas Tax Increase, and Low-Carbon Fuel Regs
SB 2 currently under reconsideration, has until May 2nd to pass committee on second attempt
By Evan Symon, March 19, 2025 7:11 pm
A Senate bill that would have repealed the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) gas tax increase of 65 cents a gallon and end the new LCFS Low-Carbon Fuel regulations that were adopted last year, was killed in the Senate Environmental Quality Committee on Wednesday despite bipartisan support for the legislation.
Senate Bill 2, by Senate Leader Brian Jones (R-San Diego), would have voided specified amendments to the Low-Carbon Fuel Standard regulations adopted by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) on November 8, 2024. Specifically, they would end the amendments that would create a new blend of gasoline that is designed to help meet California’s emission goals in the coming decades to help meet California’s emission goals in the coming decades, as well and end the 65 cents per gallon increase in gas prices that it would bring.
Senate Leader Jones wrote SB 2 shortly after the CARB decision in November with the goal of restoring the LCFS regulatory program to its status prior to the November 8, 2024 CARB vote, and void entirely the updates enacted by CARB. The goal of the bill from day one was to stop the gas tax from increasing, because of the burden that the tax put on Californians who have already been paying over $1.50 more than the national average.
“SB 2 protects the integrity of the previously existing LCFS program and its revenue streams while alleviating the consequences of the recent haphazard and
opaque regulatory updates and the potentially devastating economic impacts the updates will have on California consumers,” read Jones’ fact sheet. “This bill does not eliminate the LCFS program and does not affect CARB’s clean air initiatives, but rather simply cancels the LCFS updates enacted on November 8, 2024, restoring the program to its previous regulations.”
Going into the Senate Committees this month, SB 2 came in with bipartisan support and was expected to make it to at least a Senate vote. However, the bill failed to pass on Wednesday thanks to some Democrats still opposing it and a few other Democrats not willing to vote on the matter.
In a 2-3 vote, SB 2 was two votes shy on passing the committee. Senators Suzette Martinez Valladares (R-Santa Clarita), Megan Dahle (R-Bieber), and Melissa Hurtado (D-Fresno) all voted in favor of SB 2, citing already high gas prices and the equally high cost of living in the state. Senators Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) and Steve Padilla (D-Chula Vista) voted against the bill. However, most critical was the abstentions by Senators Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas), Caroline Menjivar (D-Burbank), and Sasha Perez (D-Pasadena). As only two of them were needed for a bill passage, their unwillingness to vote wound up dooming SB 2.
Hope for ending gas tax increase stays alive
“Today, gas prices in California are $1.55 higher per gallon than the national average because greedy, lame duck Governor Gavin Newsom and some Democrat lawmakers are price gouging us with high taxes, costly regulations, and arbitrary market interference,” said Leader Jones on Wednesday. “By blocking our measure, radical environmentalist Senate Democrats are now complicit in this scheme to raise gas prices 65 cents per gallon in an effort to force Californians into expensive EVs.
“Californians already pay the highest gas prices in the nation, and Democrats’ political agenda is driving them even higher. The Air Resources Board’s 65-cent gas price hike is a direct assault on hardworking Californians. This unelected group of wealthy bureaucrats, handpicked and directed by Governor Newsom, is shamelessly increasing gas prices so Californians are forced into electric vehicles against their will. SB 2 would have stopped their plan and kept costs stable for Californians. While it’s frustrating that a small group of radical environmentalist Democrats blocked our repeal, the measure did receive bipartisan support, signaling a sentiment shift in the majority party on this issue.”
Despite the veto on Wednesday, there are still two ways for the price hike and new regulations to be ended permanently. One of which is reconsideration of SB 2, which was granted following the vote on Wednesday. SB 2 now has to be brought back and passed out of the committee by May 2nd, which means the Leader Jones and other supporters needs to convince at least of the two Democrats who didn’t vote or voted against SB 2 the first time around to support it by May.
The second is through legal challenges. Last month, the halting of the CARB amendments by the Office of Administrative Law showed how legally vulnerable the new regulations were. Currently, the tax hike is temporarily halted until June because of issues over the amendments. Should more legal troubles arise, especially in the wake of the Trump Administration going after so many California environmental laws and regulations already, the amendments and tax hike could simply be ended legally rather than through SB 2.
For supporters of ending the regulations and tax hike, they aren’t banking on one or another and are still pushing from both ways to increase their chances of stopping the hike.
“SB 2 still has a shot, as does other ways of ending this gas tax increase for good,” explained environmental lawyer Megan Lucas to the Globe on Wednesday. “But it needs to happen soon. Time is very much of the essence here.”
This Republican authored bill never stood a chance. If a Republican authored a bill to support a new cure for cancer the Democrats would kill it. Welcome to California.
We sure as heck need to be screaming in general about CARB having had carte blanche all these years in these matters, which is completely outrageous and unacceptable. And so many HAVE been screaming about it. But Californians need to bite back hard en masse on this latest one in particular because it’s so flimsy and outrageous that even Dem politicians are miffed about it. When even Dems are P.O.’d what does that tell you?
Consider contacting your state senator when you have a chance with your objections: To SB2 being kicked knee-jerk-style from the enviro committee and to the totalitarian bureaucrats at CARB who imperiously pile on their illegal regs that endlessly add costs that burden and impoverish us all. Insist that SB2 be seriously considered. Such proposed legislation must ultimately prevail. It has bipartisan support!
Enough is enough, okay? The law suits are likely going to be successful and slap CARB’s hands hard in the end anyway, but the California people must also show their muscle and hot fury.
Find your senator here:
https://www.senate.ca.gov/senators
Democrats are such cowards. Most couldn’t even be brought to outright vote against the bill because they are afraid of backlash from their own constituents who would rightly blame them for raising their taxes. Well, an abstention is still the same as voting no. Meanwhile, the Democrats continue to prove over and over again that they are the anti-working-class party and only the party of the ideologically insane elites.
It’s no surprise that Senate Democrat on the Senate environmental committee wanted to keep the LCFS gas tax increase of 65 cents a gallon along with the LCFS Low-Carbon Fuel regulations that will dramatically increase fuel prices for Californians? It’s what the criminal Democrat thug mafia in the legislature does?
Let’s look at who these Democrats are along with who probably owns them and pays them off?
Democrat Senate Majority Leader Lena Gonzalez is the busybody who recently sent the Los Angles Dodgers a letter demanding that they end their sponsorship deals with oil companies. Never mind that her 33rd Senate District that encompasses Southeast LA and Long Beach is where lowrider culture originated. Their tricked out customized vehicles are mostly gas guzzling classics that are a part of Chicano cultural heritage. Do her constituents support her jacking up fuel prices for them? Probably not? No doubt Democrat Senator Lena “Busybody” Gonzalez is getting well paid from some nefarious sources to push the WEF globalist’s climate change scam?
Democrat Senator Steve Padilla also voted against the bill. He’s an out and loud Democrat member of the radical leftist alphabet rainbow mafia having come out in 2005. He previously served as Chula Vista mayor from 2002 to 2006 but he was defeated in the 2006 election after it was revealed that City reserves somehow dropped from $40 million to $10 million during Padilla’s tenure. He was a member of the California Coastal Commission from 2005 to 2007, and again since 2017 after being appointed to it again by Democrat Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon. Padilla’s represent the 18th Senatorial District which stretches along the Mexico–United States border and predominantly includes rural Imperial Valley along with urban areas Like Chula Vista. Do Padilla’s constituents, many of who are poor and barely getting by, support him jacking up fuel prices for them? Probably not? Why is he pushing the WEF globalist’s climate change scam and is he getting paid off to do so?
How about the critical abstentions by those three Democrat senators?
Democrat Senator Catherine Blakespear represents the 38th Senate District, which encompasses the mostly wealthy Northern San Diego County and Southern Orange County region. She’s an obnoxious lawyer who was behind the passage of Senate Bill 1053 that will ban plastic bags in 2026 despite laws that Democrats made previously that added plastic as an option due to their supposed worries about deforestation. Blakespear grew up privileged in the upscale beach community of Encinitas where she was once mayor which has been repeatedly sued over policies aimed at undermining state affordable housing laws. She has a lawsuit from her time as mayor of Encinitas and she’s the only legislator with an active legal defense fund that are used to cover expenses associated with the lawsuit. Living in a large mansion on a six acre estate in Encinitas, Blakespear is a pampered wealthy Democrat who could care less that struggling Californians will be paying much higher gas prices? Blakespear probably has a driver on her household staff who shuffles her around in an expensive EV?
Democrat Senator Caroline Menjivar represents California’s 20th Senate District which encompasses encompasses most of the San Fernando Valley section of northern LA. She’s another out and loud Democrat member of the radical leftist alphabet rainbow mafia having previously worked at the Los Angeles Mayor’s Gender Equity Office. Menjivar decided to run for the 20th district of the California State Senate in the 2022 state elections but she faced criticism during the election after an audio recording of her former boss, Democrat LA City Council president Nury Martinez, made racist statements that were leaked to the media. Do Menjivar’s constituents, many of who are poor and barely getting by, support her jacking up fuel prices for them? Probably not? Why wasn’t she present to vote for Senate Bill 2?
Democrat Senator Sasha Perez represents the 25th Senate District which stretches from the eastern San Fernando Valley in the west to the far western Inland Empire in the east. Considering that many of the communities in her district like Altadena and Pasadena suffered horrific damage during the recent fires, no doubt having to pay for much higher fuel prices is the last thing they want? Why wasn’t she present to vote for Senate Bill 2? Maybe she’s getting payoffs from nefarious sources?
TJ, thanks for the bios/backgrounds on some of the Democrat thugs who could care less if their constituents have to pay $25 a gallon for gasoline. The constituents are just peasants in their eyes, right?
I agree, Fed Up —- TJ’s post is REALLY helpful to show us who these always silly and small-minded but nevertheless destructive Dem-Marxists are.
Thank you TJ.