Steve Hilton points impassioned plea to California’s gasoline execs: ‘Don’t hand over’

California Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton has issued an impassioned plea to the leaders of California’s oil and gasoline trade — urging them to “not hand over” on the state.

The letter, despatched Tuesday to the Golden State’s largest oil firms and commerce teams, guarantees a sweeping overhaul of power coverage if the previous Fox Information host wins the governor’s race subsequent yr.

“Don’t hand over on California,” Hilton wrote to the trade leaders, together with Chevron, Marathon Petroleum, Valero and the California Unbiased Petroleum Affiliation.

The letter — obtained by The Submit — affords a blistering critique of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s power agenda and California’s controversial cap-and-invest program, which critics argue is driving refineries and power funding out of the state.

“California’s power trade is underneath assault,” Hilton wrote. “For 16 years, one-party rule in Sacramento led by Gavin Newsom has focused the very trade that helped construct California’s prosperity.”

Hilton’s intervention comes as gasoline costs in California have surged above $5 a gallon statewide, the best within the nation.

Some power analysts have warned that costs might climb even greater — probably approaching $8 a gallon — if refinery capability continues shrinking and regulators transfer ahead with a proposed overhaul of the state’s greenhouse-gas program.

Each Chevron and Marathon Oil despatched letters to Newsom within the final week laying out a doomsday state of affairs if extra refineries flee the state.

“The proposed regulation will cripple the survivability of the state’s remaining refineries, which can end in California dropping the complete trade to this misguided program,” Chevron President Andy Walz wrote to Newsom.

An trade supply advised The Submit that the governor’s workplace didn’t reply to Chevron’s letter. Newsom as a substitute spent final week hawking his new e-book in stops throughout the nation, together with a bizarre second with comic Adam Friedland wherein the governor wanted assist sounding “human.”

Below California’s cap-and-invest system, main polluters corresponding to refineries, energy vegetation and factories should purchase allowances for every ton of carbon dioxide emitted.

Annually, fewer allowances are created, whereas firms can purchase and promote allowances on a market designed to incentivize air pollution reductions.

The California Air Sources Board is now contemplating modifications to this system that might improve the price of these permits.

Hilton stated these insurance policies are accelerating a broader collapse of California’s power infrastructure.

“California as soon as had 40 refineries,” he wrote. “In the present day we’re right down to seven.”

On the similar time, he argued, the state has turn out to be more and more depending on imported crude oil. California refineries had been chargeable for 31.1% of provide in 2018 — the yr earlier than Newsom took workplace — however that quantity has steadily dropped, dipping as little as 22.9% in 2025. In the meantime, overseas imports have elevated from 57.5% in 2018 to 61.1% in 2025.

“Governor Newsom lately flew to the Amazon rainforest to lecture the world about local weather advantage whereas, underneath his insurance policies, California imports roughly half of the crude exported from that very area,” Hilton wrote. “That’s not environmental management. It’s political hypocrisy.”

Anthony Martinez, a spokesperson for the governor, pinned the blame of rising gasoline costs on President Trump’s conflict with Iran whereas additionally calling out Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, who despatched Newsom a letter Monday warning of “real-world penalties” for California’s insurance policies.

“Governor Lombardo and the oil trade are spending their time working a coordinated marketing campaign to assault California, whereas Donald Trump’s reckless Iran conflict has already value Individuals $1.5 billion in gasoline prices simply this week alone — costs are up a mean of 56 cents nationwide, not simply in California,” Martinez wrote in an e-mail to The Submit.

“In the event that they’re severe about defending shoppers, they need to direct that concern the place it belongs: at Donald Trump. There’s no finish in sight to Trump’s conflict taxing American households on the pump, and the silence from his allies is deafening.”

Hilton vowed that if elected governor he would transfer shortly to halt laws he believes are driving up power prices.

“My administration will transfer shortly to droop or reverse these regulatory modifications, appoint new management on the related companies, and restore a commonsense method to power coverage,” he wrote.

He additionally advised his administration would take a much more aggressive method to reshaping the companies that regulate California’s power sector, together with the California Air Sources Board, the California Vitality Fee and the state oil regulator CalGEM.

“The place it’s not attainable by way of government motion alone to overturn regulation, you could be assured that I’ll do all the things in my energy to reduce dangerous impacts by way of different means,” Hilton wrote, together with modifications in how enforcement is carried out.

However strain on regulators just isn’t solely coming from Republicans.

Fifteen Democratic members of the state Meeting additionally despatched a letter Monday urging the Air Sources Board to rethink components of its proposed cap-and-trade overhaul, warning the modifications might destabilize California’s gas markets.

“This disaster just isn’t a fallacy nor a thinly veiled risk,” the lawmakers wrote. “It’s a actuality borne by shoppers right this moment, who’re traditionally and empirically least in a position to afford it.”

State regulators say this system stays important to California’s local weather targets.

Lindsay Buckley, a spokesperson for the California Air Sources Board, stated the present proposal would really value $20 billion lower than earlier variations studied final yr and will ship greater than $180 billion in financial and well being advantages.

This system is projected to generate $56 billion for utility ratepayers and $37 billion for local weather investments, whereas lowering air pollution linked to respiratory sickness and different well being issues.

Nonetheless, Hilton is betting power firms — and voters — are prepared for a dramatic shift.

“In 9 months, when I’m elected governor of California, the assaults on our power trade will finish,” he wrote.

“California ought to be the power powerhouse of America, not a cautionary story.”

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