Oil Slicker

Gavin Newsom wants to do the Venzuelan thing:

If you think gas prices are high under the state’s absurdly regulated market-based system, just imagine what they’ll be under this scenario. California’s leaders don’t want us driving anyway, so then they could just raise prices at will — rather than indirectly through taxes and regulations — and force us into short-range electric vehicles. And California isn’t exactly known for efficiently operating anything. But at least oil refinery workers will get great pensions. This possibility isn’t from the musings of paranoid conservatives. “Russia. China. Venezuela. Iran. More than a dozen countries make gasoline at state-owned refineries. Could California be next on the list?” asked the Los Angeles Times in an article this week. “California policymakers are considering state ownership of one or more oil refineries, one item on a list of options presented by the California Energy Commission to ensure steady gas supplies as oil companies pull back from the refinery business in the state.”

Bad ideas should stay in their own states...