Opinion: You Pay $7 a Gallon for Gas, Because of Decisions Made By the California Legislature. Scott Weiner Wants to Take the Anti-Car Crusade National

California just received its last shipment of Middle Eastern oil. Nothing else is on the way. This should be a national wake-up call. Instead, San Francisco seems poised to reward an author of such anti-automobile policies with a seat in Congress.

California sits on over one billion barrels of proven oil reserves and produces roughly 250,000 barrels per day. Our refineries have the capacity to process 1.4 million barrels daily. And yet, we now import roughly 60% of our crude oil from foreign sources.

This crisis was created by politicians in Sacramento. State Senator Scott Wiener and his colleagues in the one-party Democratic supermajority have spent years passing law after law that makes it extremely difficult and expensive to produce energy in California. Through restrictive permitting, aggressive environmental mandates, and outright hostility toward oil production, they have deliberately chosen to make our state dependent on foreign oil while California families pay some of the highest gas prices in the nation.

State Senator Scott Wiener has been one of the leading voices in this anti-fossil fuel, anti-car crusade. He has consistently supported aggressive climate regulations, higher fuel taxes, cap-and-trade expansion, and policies that increase the cost of refining and distributing gasoline. Wiener has pushed hard for reduced parking requirements, car-free living, and massive shifts away from private vehicles. While he frames these as environmental victories, the practical result for working families is some of the highest gas prices in the United States — often approaching or exceeding $7 per gallon in the Bay Area. Had enough?

This energy crisis was not inevitable. It was chosen.

While other states responsibly develop their natural resources and keep energy prices lower, California's leaders have prioritized ideology over practicality. The result is painfully clear every time a California family fills up their tank or pays their utility bill.

As a candidate for Congress, I believe we need a more balanced and realistic energy policy. We can protect the environment without making it impossible to produce American energy here at home. We can reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign oil while still pursuing cleaner technologies.

The high price of gas and energy in California is not an act of God or the market alone - it is largely the result of bad public policy. Sacramento has spent years making it harder and more expensive to produce energy in the state that needs it most.

It's time to change course. Californians should not have to suffer with sky-high energy costs because politicians in Sacramento decided that producing our own oil was politically incorrect.

Energy security and affordability are not partisan issues - they are basic necessities. It's time for California to start acting like it.