President Donald Trump is responsible for California’s high gasoline prices, says Governor Gavin Newsom. “Americans will pay $1.5 BILLION MORE at the gas pump just this week because of Donald Trump’s war with Iran,” he wrote. When the Trump administration invoked the Defense Production Act to restart the Sable Offshore pipeline near Santa Barbara, Newsom condemned the move as a cynical attempt to exploit a crisis of the president’s own making. “Donald Trump started a war, admitted it would spike gas prices nationwide, and told Americans it was a small price to pay,” Newsom said. “Now he’s using this crisis of his own making to attempt what he’s wanted to do for years: open California’s coast for his oil industry friends so they can poison our beaches.”
But California’s $5.86-per-gallon gasoline price exceeds the national average of $3.95 by nearly two dollars because Newsom has systematically dismantled the state’s energy supply infrastructure. Washington and Hawaii, the next most expensive, trail California by more than a dollar. Texas drivers pay $2.70. while leaving demand largely intact. California imports roughly 63% of its crude oil from foreign countries, despite having at least 1.7 billion barrels of proven reserves. Its oil production fell by more than 75%, from over 1 million barrels per day in the 1980s to 246,000 barrels per day at the end of 2025.
California made itself into an energy island, isolated from the continent’s abundant oil and natural gas resources by regulatory choice rather than geographic necessity. Where California used to be one of America’s largest oil producers, most of the state’s crude now arrives by sea. “Because Gulf Coast refiners can access domestic crude through pipelines,” notes Robert Rapier, “Persian Gulf barrels are not evenly spread across the country. A disproportionate share of those Saudi and Iraqi imports ends up in PADD 5, the West Coast refining district, precisely because California lacks pipeline access to Permian supply.” And California’s refineries aren’t set up to refine domestic crude but rather foreign imports.