Steve Hilton’s Plan for Cutting Gas Prices and Creating Affordable Energy

Today, July 1, 2025, AAA reports that the national average for a gallon of regular grade gas is $3.178.

California’s average for a gallon of regular gas is $4.581.

California’s average for a gallon of mid-grade gas is $4.807.

California’s average for a gallon of premium-grade gas is $4.985.

California’s average for a gallon of diesel is $5.115.

The lowest price for a gallon of regular grade gas in in Mississippi  at $2.711.

The California Globe has written plenty and consistently about California’s soaring gas prices. We’ve covered California’s excessively high energy costs, and in 2024, more than 1 out of 6 households, or 21.12 million Americans were and may still be behind in energy bill payments. In California, energy poverty is real and pushes people further down into poverty.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Since Donald Trump was re-elected and took office January 20, 2025, the U.S. has retaken the lead in global oil production, no thanks to California.

Here is why California leads the nation in the highest gas and energy prices:

California Governor Cracks Down On Fracking, Requires Audits and Scientific Review from NPR.

Newsom bans new California fracking permits starting in 2024.

Bad Timing: California Denies 21 Fracking Permits in Kern County, the Globe reported in 2021.

NPR reported in 2019:

In 2019, California Gov. Gavin Newsom imposed new regulations on hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, and curbed steam-injected oil drilling. extractive methods long opposed by environmentalists.

The Globe reported in 2021, Senators Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Monique Limon (D-Santa Barbara), introduced Senate Bill 467 to halt all hydraulic fracturing resource extraction. Under SB 467, new or renewed permits to conduct hydraulic fracturing, acid well stimulation treatment, steam flooding, water flooding, or cyclic steaming for the extraction of oil and gas would be prohibited beginning in January 2022. Gov. Newsom signed SB 467 into law in 2022.

As we’ve reported, California currently has the highest gas prices in the nation – higher even than Hawaii, despite California’s abundant oil reserves.

As we have asked repeatedly, if oil companies are gouging at the pump as Gov. Gavin Newsom claims, why are prices in neighboring western states like Nevada ($3.78) or Arizona ($3.25) significantly lower?

This pricing crisis stems from 15 years of misguided Democratic policies that prioritize ideology over affordability, says California Gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton.

Steve Hilton, a Republican, says he has a plan for $3.00 gas again in California through rolling back the California Air Resources Board’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, and the CARB’s Cap and Trade; by removing refinery regulations, and opening up production again in the state.

Hilton also said on day-one as governor, he would fire CARB director Liane Randolph, and replace her with a pro-energy person, with a new mandate to focus on energy affordability and reliability.

At a gas station Tuesday in San Jose, Hilton discussed his plan to lower California’s gas prices.

“Today, unelected bureaucrat Liane Randolph, head of CARB (California Air Resources Board) raised your gas prices,” Hilton said. “Gavin Newsom did nothing to stop it. On Day 1 as governor I will remove Liane Randolph and start rolling back extreme climate regulations so we can have $3.00 gas.”

“California Democrats have prioritized ‘climate’ ideology over affordability, driving out oil refineries, shutting down cleaner in-state oil production, and piling on extreme, unnecessary regulations,” Hilton says. “Democrats have declared a “war on fossil fuel”, with a stated goal of “net zero” carbon emissions by 2045 – a wildly unrealistic target with an incredibly costly and destructive price tag.”

Here is Steve Hilton’s Four-Point Gas Price Reform Plan to get California back to $3.00-per-gallon gas:

Eliminate extreme ‘environmental program’ costs, including hidden taxes such as payments to the cap-and-trade system to fund the failed high speed rail fiasco.

Suspend the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), reformulation requirements, and other extreme and unnecessary refinery regulation.Originally intended to reduce smog, many of these regulations are outdated or duplicative of modern vehicle emissions standards.

Reduce bureaucracy and reform procurement to reduce excise tax by 50%. California charges 60 cents per gallon in excise taxes, but much of this revenue intended to improve roads and transportation infrastructure is wasted in sprawling, costly and cumbersome design and procurement bureaucracy. By streamlining these processes and enforcing transparency in gas tax fund allocation, Californians can see that this tax operates as intended, to finance road infrastructure.

Aggressively reduce crude oil imports, especially from authoritarian regimes with terrible environmental and human rights records, by rapidly expanding California production. Excessive permitting delays, drilling restrictions, and costly new laws like SB1-2 and AB2-1 have driven up prices and made it harder to produce affordable energy in California.

California families deserve relief from crushing gas prices, and Hilton’s plan offers a proven path to affordable energy while maintaining environmental responsibility.

Read more at Steve Hilton for Governor, Golden Together website.

As the Globe reported in April, California’s oil and gas industry provides 536,770 total jobs in California and 148,140 Californians are directly employed by its individual companies—along with the $338 billion total economic contribution to California’s economy. Those numbers are something we all should feel proud of, a report from the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) Institute for Applied Economics – Oil and Gas in California: The Industry, its Economic Contribution and Major User Industries – released.

Oil and gas delivers $23 billion in annual wages and benefits to oil and gas workers in the Golden State, and $53.4 billion in wages to all workers supported by the industry.

Imagine what those numbers doubled could do long term for the California economy.