Your last-minute guide to California governor candidates’ views on gas prices, EVs and high-speed rail – Los Angeles Times

Your last-minute guide to California governor candidates’ views on gas prices, EVs and high-speed rail  Los Angeles Times

In California, fuel prices often are higher than anywhere else in the country, a reflection of the state's high cost of living that voters want their next governor to address. The two candidates running to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom — Democratic former U.S. Health and Human Services secretary Xavier Becerra and Republican former Fox News host Steve Hilton — have vastly different views on climate and energy policy. Here is where they stand on gas prices, electric vehicle mandates and California's long-delayed high-speed rail project. California is the most expensive gasoline market in the nation, according to AAA, with an average price of $6.01 per gallon. Nationally, the average price was $4.28 per gallon, and this month was expected to become the most expensive for gas prices on record, according to AAA.

Becerra and Hilton both blame the high costs on the opposing political party — Becerra says President Trump’s war in Iran has increased prices by $2 per gallon, while Hilton blames California’s prices on policies pushed by Newsom and Democratic lawmakers. Hilton has made the promise of $3 a gallon gasoline at California’s pumps a central plank of his affordability campaign. He argues he can achieve the target by repealing “outdated” environmental regulations and issuing more drilling permits in California. “We could be producing most of it