As you may have read, Gov. Newsom wants to get the state Legislature back to Sacramento in October (a month before the election) to convene a special session to pass his new regulations on oil and gas. He wants to rush the action when Republicans say more time is needed to study the implications of Newsom’s latest proposed set of bills, which call for oil refiners to maintain a minimum fuel reserve to avoid supply shortages.
Interesting that all this time he hasn’t seemed too pressed about lower gas prices in California. A friend of mine in Ohio on Friday posted a photo of what he paid at the pump: $2.49 for regular. I paid $4.79 yesterday. His gas was $2.30 a gallon less than what I just paid. If oil companies aren’t price gouging in Ohio, then why would they be in California as Newsom states?
Instead of lowering the state gas tax, Newsom raises it and then blames the oil companies as he wants the state to interfere with the private market.
The Western States Petroleum Association issued its response, calling Newsom’s first-in-the-nation proposal “detrimental.” That group says that “If we want to actually improve the economic health of our state, as well as our community, then let’s allow for more energy production. Not only will it generate revenue because we’ll actually have more product, but it actually will lower the cost of energy in our state.”
The governors of Arizona and Nevada signed a joint letter to Newsom warning him of what his state is proposing. They wrote to him saying: “we’re concerned that mandating refinery inventory would directly raise the cost of fuel for all of our constituencies and create further economic instability in the region.”
Seems the governors of those neighboring states have more common sense than does Newsom.
They continued: “In their recent report, the California Energy Commission (CEC) explicitly states that SB-950, now introduced as ABX2-1, ‘may artificially create shortages in downstream markets,’ which would raise costs for consumers in Arizona and Nevada’ This conclusion alone is deeply troubling and warrants bipartisan, regional communication on this legislation before proceeding.
“Further amplifying our concerns, refiners have raised the alarm that refinery inventory mandates could result in supply shortages and potential refinery shutdowns, which would have grave impacts to our shared economies and transportation infrastructure across the West.
“Despite ongoing conversations about the root causes of rising fuel costs, it is evident that increased regulatory burdens on refiners and forced supply shortages will result in higher costs for consumers in all of our states. With both of our states reliant on California pipelines for significant amounts of our fuel, these looming cost increases and supply shortages are of tremendous concern to Arizona and Nevada.”
If California is short on gasoline supply it’s artly due to the state constantly warring against refineries. California had 43 refineries in the 1980s and now 14, and only a fraction of those produce most of the supply. Because of the state’s effort to phase out gas-powered cars, why would any oil company want to build new refineries? The president of Chevron said it would take a decade to build a single tank due to environmental regulations.
The Arizona Central calls Newsom’s plan “idiotic,” mostly because if refineries are forced to store excess reserves, that means supply is artificially reduced which would lead to higher prices. But this time, other states that get oil from those California refineries would pay more.
Newsom is beyond explanation. But don’t forget that his real goal is to force us all to drive EVs despite their massive shortcomings.
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In south Modesto, social media in an uproar about a new McDonalds being constructed on Crows Landing Road at Pueblo Avenue.
Well, at least the building is going up on an empty lot. I nearly cried when I saw the iconic Marie Callendar’s restaurant – a chain started as an American success story by an ambitious mom who expanded her pie making operation in the 1940s – being razed in Modesto to build another damned boxy looking McDonalds.
As Danny Baugh wrote on Facebook: “For the price of fast so called food I can get a steak and vegetables from the store – real food and healthy.” True. There’s not much difference in paying to eat in a sit-down restaurant serving better food than to pick up a fattening Big Mac, fries and a soda. Sad.
I about choked when I saw that Carl’s Jr. is now selling large sodas for nearly $5. I bet their soda sales are tanking faster than Trump fans at a Taylor Swift’s concerts.
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Dang, on Monday the Ceres Planning Commission cancelled its 14th meeting of the year for lack of business.
The commission has only met six times this year. Must be that bustling Biden economy.
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Ceres resident Gene Yeakley is not afraid to speak his mind and last week when the City Council deliberated about whether the city should sponsor Hispanic Heritage Month festivities at the El Rematito Flea Market. Councilman Daniel Martinez proposed the city to hand over $5,000 of taxpayer dollars to the South Modesto Business Association.
Martinez was supported only by Mayor Javier Lopez, and shot down by the other three members concerned about dipping into reserve funds (taxpayers’ money.) The whole council should be concerned because next year you-know-what is going to hit the budget fan. There won’t ARPA funds to rescue deficit spending habits. It could look very ugly next year at budget time.
In trying to pitch his idea, Martinez said: “We had done so for the Fourth of July event that they had (at El Rematito Flea Market) where they had the drone show out there. It was a big event for the community. They are once again seeking help.”
Yeakley acknowledged that he’d probably get called a racist when he questioned why no other ethnic groups are celebrated.
I feel his disappointment that it seems today’s immigrants embrace their ethnic heritage with less enthusiasm of celebrating being an American, assimilating and speaking English.
Gone is the expectation of a melting pot. It used to be each city had its Chamber of Commerce to promote its business community. Now we have Latino Chambers of Commerce to, I would suppose, advance just Latino businesses.
What Yeakley was trying to say is when government celebrates certain ethnicities it carries the notion that that segment is of singular importance over the others.
The Fourth of July is for all Americans of all ethnicities. We should be identifying as one people under one flag.
It’s too bad that celebrating the Fourth of July isn’t enough for all Americans – if indeed they are citizens.
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There was some misinformation dispensed at the dedication of the Guillermo Ochoa Park on Thursday.
Mayor Javier Lopez suggested that the park naming exercise in 2021 resulted in the “overwhelming choice” of Ochoa and that “it was the right thing to do.”
The choice was not overwhelming. Ochoa’s name garnered just two votes more than the suggestion of Veterans Park to honor all military veterans.
Just under 40 persons recommended Howard Stevenson Park for the sergeant who was slain outside of George’s Liquors in January 2005.
Twelve folks recommended the name of former mayor Louie Arrollo.
The second erroneous statement was uttered by Russ Fowler, an aide to Supervisor Channce Condit who remarked that Ochoa was the first Latino to serve on the Ceres City Council. Louis Arrollo was the first Latino to serve on the council.
Don’t get me wrong, Ochoa was a very nice person and decent human being. There’s no debate there.
But if the city “respects and remembers those who have worked to improve our community and reflects the ongoing commitment to celebrate the people who truly made a difference” as the mayor said, it seems a glaring omission to suggest Ochoa had more impact than Arrollo. Arrollo was not only the first Latino council member and mayor but devoted much of his life to public safety as a police officer and commander and later an administrator at Ceres High School. He also lived far longer in Ceres than did Ochoa.
The public’s memory is short and the newcomers on today’s city council have no historical context. Under Arrollo’s watch the city built the skate park in Smyrna Park, established the summer Concerts in the Park, built the downtown police headquarters, established the “Ceres – Together We Achieve” slogan, and presided over the merging of police and fire into the single Public Safety Department until it was dismantled.
Another missed opportunity like in 2009 when the Ceres School Board chose to honor an outsider named Cesar Chavez and skip over the name of farmer Wayne Salter who served on the Ceres School Board for 12 years, retiring in 1961, and who helped to organize the Ceres Peach Festival which later evolved into the Ceres Street Faire. The Ceres Chamber of Commerce honored Wayne as Agribusiness Man of the Year in 1993.
Such is the community politics of naming a school but let’s try to remember history accurately.
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I routinely watch who could be the only truly accurate pollster weekly on YouTube, Rasmussen, and they say the media is lying to us that Kamala Harris is ahead of Donald Trump.
They suggest he is on target to a win the White House. Why else would the Left being so intent on killing the man?
I find some interesting takeaways from their polling data. For example, athiests overwhelmingly support Harris.
On Friday the crosstabs reflected on Americans’ views as to how important it is for Harris to give more than the one interview that she has given. Eighty percent of Republicans believe more interviews are important while 82 percent of Independents say important. They are the group that could decide the election and they are getting little from her.
She’s hiding because her ideas are not popular so you get a lot of platitudes.
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If you’re like me, you have your set of pet peeves. Here are some of mine regarding my fellow human beings:
• People who use the F word gratuitously. Folks who use this truly empty word show a total lack of vocabulary and in most instances creativity.
• Parents who use the F word and other foul language in front of their small children.
• Parents whose lack of parenting skills raise losers like the ones who got arrested in a stolen car last weekend (see page A3) and resist and spit on officers.
• People who don’t clean up their table or floor after their children make a horrendous mess in a restaurant.
• People who feel leave comments on Facebook when they don’t have a clue what they are talking about.
• People who don’t use their blinker. That goes for about 91% of drivers. I’ve even seen police officers not use a blinker. It shows a total lack of courtesy for others on the road.
• People who say “no problem” after you tell them thank you. (I didn’t say it was a problem; I was thanking you.)
• Young drivers who use Highway 99 as a speed obstacle course. As they engage in breakneck speeds to get to their destination in the fastest possible time, they really aren’t saving themselves but seconds but putting us all in jeopardy.
• All of the folks out driving without insurance.
• Fast food places asking you to tip someone handing over your food. You’re not waiting on my table; you are supplying me with product. I don’t tip the cashier at the grocery store. I don’t tip the mailman and I don’t tip the salesman who hands me the keys to the car that I bought. Since when does handing over product justify a tip, especially when you are making $20 an hour at a fast-food eatery?
• The mother who leaves her child’s dirty diaper in the parking lot at Walmart instead of finding a garbage can to put it in or taking it with her in a bag.
• Men who make babies and abandon their responsibility to them.
• Men who renege on marriage vows.
• People who drive into the country in the dark of night to dump their mattresses, discarded furniture, discarded refrigerator or any other type of debris. Societal vermin.
• Car owners who tint their windows so dark you can’t see them at a four-way stop. That’s illegal, but I guess police aren’t citing these visual obstructions and obvious hazards and potential for some serious accidents. (How about a law outlawing window tinting shops to add shades darker than the law allows?)
• Shallow voters who fall for mainstream media propaganda about candidates they dislike without really knowing what they stand for. (I was guilty of that when I was young because I supported Jimmy Carter in 1980 and had no clue as to why I liked him other than he appeared to be an honest peanut farmer. I tend to think the dumbest voters are the ones who embrace socialism, which doesn’t work.
• Pet owners who bring their small dogs into Taco Bell and they bark loudly at you when you walk through the door as a customer. (Yes, this happened to me last week).
• People who let their lawns die and mar the neighborhood where others do give a damn.
• People take shopping carts illegally from centers and leaving them in neighborhoods.
• People whose social media posts are riddled with misspelled words (anyone “loose” a turtle?) and such poor grammar that you still can’t make out what’s they wrote after the third or fourth reading.
• People who can’t differentiate the difference between there, they’re and their. Also, to, too and two. (It’s not that hard, folks). And it’s a center median, not a center medium. It’s asked not axed.
• Dog owners who carry a plastic bag to collect Fido’s poop only to tie it securely and toss it into the flower bed to die a slow death.
How many of you share the same pet peeves as do I?
This column is the opinion of Jeff Benziger, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Ceres Courier or 209 Multimedia Corporation. How do you feel about this? Let Jeff know at jeffb@cerescourier.com
