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Doug Burgum Slams Gavin Newsom for Blaming Trump for California Gas Prices

Dmitri Bolt
Dmitri Bolt  |  March 11, 2026 12:00 PM

Secretary of Energy Doug Burgum responded to allegations made by California Governor Gavin Newsom, who blamed none other than President Trump for the state's rising gas prices, which in some parts have risen to over $8.00 a gallon.

Secretary Burgum was asked how he would respond to Newsom's allegations on Wednesday. 

"Well, wow, that is something, coming from California," he said. "Because of course, under Gavin Newsom, California used to have 40 refineries. Now they have eight, two more are closing. They're going to be down to six with Chevron and Valero closing. California is the most energy-dependent state in America."

Sixty-three percent of their oil gets imported. Now they're going to be importing refined product into San Francisco Bay and into Long Beach every day just to keep their fleet. They have the largest number of internal combustion cars in America, in California, in more than any other state even has vehicles. And of course they've been trying to eliminate those, and doing that, which then puts us dependent on China. I mean, their energy policies are as crazy as Europe. And part of the reason why their prices are so high is they've restricted supply and killed their own economy.

Another contributing factor is the special gasoline blend required by the California government, which is intended to be more environmentally friendly. This blend not only costs more to produce but also makes the state’s fuel market far more volatile, especially if a refinery goes offline. As a result, California’s gas prices typically run about $1.50 higher than the national average. A little more than half of that difference comes from state taxes, while the rest stems from the higher cost of the special fuel blend.

The idea that this could be blamed on President Trump is laughable, especially as gas prices in the state remained elevated at similar levels throughout the Obama and Biden administrations. However, it hasn't stopped Newsom from trying to shift the blame as much as possible.

"Americans will pay $1.5 BILLION MORE at the gas pump just this week because of Donald Trump's war with Iran," Newsom posted to X. "California will continue using the tools we've spent years developing to help fight price spikes and lessen the blow from Trump's recklessness."