Gas supply bill splits two Fresno County Democrats. Election season is why | Opinion
Joaquin Arambula and Esmeralda Soria are San Joaquin Valley Democrats in the state Assembly who often work toward the same aims.
For example, Arambula has championed extending health care to undocumented people, particularly farm workers. Soria, meanwhile, has supported funding to keep rural hospitals like Madera Community open. Such facilities provide medical care to low-income and undocumented patients.
So it would be logical to think they would occupy the same place when it came to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s push to require oil companies have a reserve supply of gasoline to minimize price spikes when refineries shut down for maintenance and the regular supply drops.
Arambula voted for Assembly Bill X2-1, as it is known, when it came before the chamber last week. It passed with the bare majority of support.
Soria? She was one of just two Democrats in the Assembly to vote against it.
I reached out to Soria’s office for an explanation of her vote. She said it was a household-budget issue for her.
“At a time when the cost of basic necessities is so high and working folks are already struggling to pay bills or put food on the table we cannot take a risk on new regulations that could result in higher gas prices,” she said in a statement. “That’s why today I voted no on ABx2-1.
“The bill’s new regulations are unproven, risky, and could ultimately hurt the communities that can least afford it.”
Soria’s district realities
Left unsaid is the fact her district includes Coalinga, which is in Fresno County’s southwest corner and is home to the area’s oil industry.
There are more than 2,000 wells in the county, with most in or near Coalinga. Nearly 3,000 people in Fresno County are directly employed by the industry, which contributes $1.67 billion to the local economy and $373.6 million in sales and local tax revenue, according to the Western States Petroleum Association.
Soria is in her first re-election campaign, and cannot afford to lose votes, even though her 27th District is majority Democrat when it comes to party registration. Arambula, by contrast, is well known in his district as he campaigns for his final term. His district also has a Democratic registration edge.
California has never ordered oil companies to keep a reserve supply on hand to lessen the impacts of things like refinery closures for maintenance. So Soria is right about the regulations being unproven.
For his part, Newsom called AB X2-1 “a profoundly consequential effort to reduce the costs of working people in the state of California.” His position has been that oil companies jack up prices whenever refineries go offline and the supply of the state’s special blend of gas gets tighter.
Arambula also sees the issue as a pocketbook one, but differently from Soria. Arambula’s spokeswoman Felicia Matlosz said he “believes the Legislature needs to do something to help California’s residents who have been paying more for gasoline. He has heard about these concerns from constituents in the 31st District that he represents.”
Needless to say, the oil industry strongly opposed AB X2-1 as an unnecessary incursion of government into the free market.
““Instead of offering real solutions, the governor chose to demonize an industry that powers California’s economy and fuels the daily lives of millions,” said the petroleum association, the industry’s main lobbying group.
Supporting gas reserve
The other Democrat to oppose the gas-reserve bill? Jasmeet Bains. Her 35th District includes most of Kern County, California’s main oil-producing area.
In election years, it is normal for politicians to vote their constituents’ key concerns, said Thomas Holyoke, a political science professor at Fresno State. Soria “probably feels the need to carefully vote her district so as not to lose any votes, especially if her Republican opponent is focusing on energy issues,” he explained.
For Soria, the Nov. 5 general election is a repeat of the March primary, in which Republican Joanna Garcia Rose edged out Soria with about 51% of the vote to Soria’s 49%. The 27th Assembly District includes parts of Fresno, Madera and Merced counties. Cities in the district include parts of Fresno, Madera and Merced.
Soria recently celebrated Newsom signing one of her bills to authorize the Westlands Water District in western Fresno County to oversee conversion of farm land to solar energy projects.
Soria’s support for clean energy and the oil industry may seem incompatible. But not in election season.
