LAS VEGAS — Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo are both keeping an eye on what California is doing to keep gas prices low. The same rules could make it harder to get gas in Nevada and Arizona, which would make the price at the pump go up.
In a letter sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom of California on Tuesday, Lombardo and Hobbs ask Newsom to work with their states to find a solution that won’t make prices go up for no reason.
Newsom called a special session of the California Legislature to talk about laws that would require refineries to keep supplies ready for use in California. That could make transfers to Arizona and Nevada less important since both of those states depend on gasoline that comes through ports in California.
It’s enough to get Lombardo, a Republican, to work with Hobbs, a Democrat.
Newsom is being asked by the two governors to let business leaders and state officials in all three states have “thorough policy conversations.” The whole letter is shown below:
It’s not the first time Lombardo has written to Newsom about measures that affect gas prices. Lombardo asked Newsom in May to think about how a cap on refiners’ income would affect other states while California was thinking about it.
He wrote in that letter that 88% of the gasoline used in Nevada comes from California through pipes or trucks.
A website called gasbuddy.com says that the national average price of gasoline has been going down for six weeks now, but the average price in Nevada has not been going down with it.