Now, the Legislature is kicking responsibility to a new watchdog body, backed by subpoena powers, within the California Energy Commission.

If refiners exceeded those profit margins, they would face financial penalties. In December, Newsom proposed legislative language that would set an across-the-board cap on profits by the state’s oil refineries.

The current legislation is a comprise between lawmakers and the governor. “The problem is we don’t have the information to prove this, and we don’t have the ability to penalize the kind of historic price gouging we saw last year.” “There’s truly no other explanation for these historically high prices other than greed,” Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo, a Southern California Democrat, said on Monday during a hearing in Sacramento.

But industry representatives said the state’s environmental regulations, high taxes, and the transition away from fossil fuels are the cause of high prices and an increasingly volatile gas market. Newsom slammed the industry for “price gouging,” an accusation that gained political traction after oil giants reported historic profits. After a large dip over the winter, California gas prices have slowly ticked higher to an average of $4.82 on Monday.

Gavin Newsom and some of the country’s largest oil companies after the state saw gas prices topping $6.40 a gallon twice last year. The bill, SBX 1-2, which passed the State Assembly in a 52-19 vote on Monday, is the culmination of a bitter battle between Gov. In a bid to tamp down the Golden State’s highest-in-the-nation gas prices, California lawmakers on Monday passed legislation to set up the country’s first watchdog body tasked with investigating the oil industry.

Financial watchdog