• U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) led 15 members of California’s congressional delegation in calling for a federal investigation by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission into recent spikes in home energy costs, according to a Feb. 22 statement from the congressman’s office. “With unexpectedly high home gas prices, we have heard stories from our constituents who have had to make the hard choice between staying warm at night or not having enough funds to buy groceries for the week,” the lawmakers wrote. “Therefore, we ask that you move expeditiously and open an investigation to ensure there [is] no unfair market manipulation or anti-competitive practices that are hurting many of our constituents across the state of California.” The lawmakers cite data from the California Public Utilities Commission that shows that despite a nationwide decline in natural gas prices, California ratepayers have seen dramatic spikes in their utility bills—with some in California paying more than double what they paid the previous year. Pacific Gas and Electric customers in Northern California experienced an increase from $151 to $195, meanwhile SoCalGas customers’ prices more than doubled compared to the previous year with an average of $123 to $300. This contrasts with natural gas prices falling by an average of 50 percent across the country based on recent analysis, the letter stated.
• U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) and several members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to appoint a highly qualified Latino American to the Federal Reserve’s board of governors, according to a Feb. 22 statement from the senator’s office. In the Fed’s 109-year history, a Latino or Latina has never served on the board of governors. In their letter, the lawmakers urge Biden to take this historic moment and recognize the fastest-growing demographic with a $2.8 trillion economic output. The lawmakers also highlighted that only 5 percent of the Fed’s overall workforce identifies as Hispanic or Latino. “As you consider nominees to fill the vacancy on the Federal Reserve board of governors, we strongly urge the administration to nominate a qualified Latino candidate to fill this position,” the lawmakers wrote. “Despite being the United States’ largest and fastest-growing minority population, Latinos have been persistently underrepresented at the Federal Reserve.”
• The California state Senate hosted the first informational hearing of the special session to pass a price gouging penalty and transparency measures, according to a Feb. 22 statement from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office. Gas prices reached a high of $6.42 per gallon last year, a record $2.61 more per gallon than the national average. This spike in gasoline prices resulted in record refiner profits of $63 billion in just 90 days. Newsom convened a special session of the Legislature in December to pass a gas price-gouging penalty to increase transparency into the industry and to keep extreme oil refiner profits in check. During the hearing, lawmakers and experts agreed that Californians are getting “ripped off” at the pump and action is needed to protect consumers. It was also made clear that more data is needed on Big Oil’s profits and California’s gasoline market, which is what the governor’s proposal hopes to accomplish by holding the oil industry to the same levels of accountability facing other critical industries like electrical utilities. “Today’s hearing provided even more evidence that we need to crack down on Big Oil’s price gouging at the pump. Experts detailed how gas price hikes led to record profits and why we need greater transparency,” Newsom said in the statement. “Big Oil’s lobbyists again used scare tactics and refused to provide answers or solutions to last year’s price spikes. We’re taking action to hold them accountable with a price-gouging penalty and long-overdue transparency measures.”
This article appears in Mar 2-9, 2023.