“The increase contributes to inflation, the high cost of living in California, and has a disproportionate and adverse impact on lower income Californians,” wrote Professor Michael A. Mische. “To compensate for the increases, the average Californian driving an internal combustion vehicle will have to earn an additional $600.00 to $1,000.00 a year in pre-tax income in order to “breakeven” with 2024 prices, depending on the grade of gas they purchase.”

Days after the November election, the California Air Resources Board — a regulatory commission almost entirely appointed by the governor — passed new updates to the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, requiring producers of “dirty” transportation fuel to purchase more credits from producers of “clean” transportation fuel. The new LCFS will provide an estimated $105 billion in EV charging credits and $8 billion of hydrogen credits largely paid for by fees on gasoline and diesel, which the state estimated would be passed on to drivers and consumers.

Mische first estimated that the state’s newly passed carbon credit requirement will increase retail prices for regular grade gasoline in 2025 somewhere between 40 and 65 cents per gallon — similar to that estimated by the University of Pennsylvania Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.

He then estimated that the governor’s new refinery regulations he passed during a special legislative session last month would increase prices between 5 and 27 cents per gallon, and that the shutdown of the Phillips 66 refinery announced after the new refinery regulations would add another 8 to 14 cents per gallon.

Because California gas taxes rise with the state’s price index, Mische estimates the gas tax will go up between one to two cents per gallon in 2025.

Combined, these changes add up to an increase of 55 to 90 cents per gallon of regular-grade gasoline in 2025, and 95 cents to $1.15 for premium-grade gasoline.

Republicans pointed out that the governor has now moved away from Sacramento, the state’s capital, and will now be chauffeured to work in a gasoline car.

“Newsom is completely out of touch, recently purchasing a $9.1 million mansion in Kentfield, a wealthy town that’s 90 miles away from his job in Sacramento,” said Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones, R-San Diego, in a statement. “While regular Californians face tough choices between putting food on the table or gas in their cars, Newsom will be chauffeured to work from his luxury home in a taxpayer-funded car, running on taxpayer-funded gas, on the rare occasions he decides to show up.”

Trump said Lutnick will lead the “tariff and trade agenda,” an important role for president-elect, who has vowed to aggressively wield tariffs. Lutnick is a veteran of Wall Street and current CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial services company.

“I am thrilled to announce that Howard Lutnick, Chairman & CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, will join my Administration as the United States Secretary of Commerce,” Trump said in a statement. “In his role as Co-Chair of the Trump-Vance Transition Team, Howard has created the most sophisticated process and system to assist us in creating the greatest Administration America has ever seen.”

Trump has argued that tariffs can be used to bring in major revenue for the U.S., pressure nations around the world to comply with U.S. economic demands, and improve the job market in the U.S.

Lutnick has publicly promoted tariffs in the media, explaining how they can be a tool in negotiations with other countries, many of whom currently tariff U.S. products, pointing out for instance that 100% tariffs in Europe and Japan prevent U.S. automakers from selling in other countries. Many economists question whether higher tariffs will drive elevated inflation in the U.S.

Trump is daily announcing new picks for his administration.

So far, Trump’s choices include:

• Howard Lutnick as Secretary of Commerce.
• Sean Duffy to lead the Department of Transportation.
• Chris Wright for Department of Energy Secretary.
• Brendan Carr to lead the Federal Communications Commission.
• North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum as Secretary of the Interior.
• William Owen Scharf as Assistant to the President and White House Staff Secretary.
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as head of U.S. Health and Human Services
• Former Congresswoman and veteran Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence.
• Former Congressman Doug Collins as Secretary of Veterans Affairs
• Jay Clayton as Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
• Former congressman Matt Gaetz for Attorney General.
• Veteran and Fox News host Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense.
• Veteran and former New York congressman Lee Zeldin as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
• U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., as Secretary of State.
• Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan as “border czar.”
• Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
• Former Congresswoman and current governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
• Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the “Department of Government Efficiency.
• William Joseph McGinley as White House Counsel.
• Steven C. Witkoff as Special Envoy to the Middle East.
• Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla. as national security advisor.
• Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel.
• Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. as ambassador to the U.N.
• Dean John Sauer as Solicitor General.
• Todd Blanche as Deputy Attorney General.
• Emil Bove as Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General.
• Dan Scavino of the Trump campaign as Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff.
• Susie Wiles, co-chair of the Trump campaign, as White House Chief of Staff.
• Stephen Miller as Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor.
• James Blair of the Trump campaign as Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislative, Political and Public Affairs.
• Taylor Budowich of the Trump campaign as Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications and Personnel.

Texas again grew jobs at a faster annual rate than the national job growth rate over the year in October. It also set a new record high for the greatest number employed in the civilian labor force and a new record high for total Texans working, including the self-employed, according to new data from the Texas Workforce Commission.

Over the year, from October 2023 to October 2024, Texas added 274,600 jobs. Its annual nonfarm growth rate was 2%, outpacing the national growth rate by 0.6%.

In October, Texas reached a new record high recording the largest labor force in state history of 15,497,100, after adding 47,300 workers over the month. This marks the 10th consecutive month of growth for Texas’ civilian labor force, the TWC said. Over the year, Texas’ civilian labor force added 360,800 workers, according to TWC data.

Texas also reached a new high for Texans working, including the self-employed, of 14,858,700.

“Texas grows jobs at a faster annual rate than the U.S. because Texas moves at the speed of business,” Gov. Greg Abbott said. “Meeting the changing needs of Texas entrepreneurs and businesses is paramount to ensure ongoing job growth across industries. That is why the state of Texas invests in workforce development and career training to prepare our young and growing labor force for high-demand, good-paying jobs. With more than four million Texans participating every year in those skills training programs and Texas removing regulatory roadblocks that burden small businesses and job growth, we will build a bigger, better Texas for all.”

The Financial Activities industry reported the largest over-the-month increase in October, adding 6,200 jobs. It grew by 3.1% over the year, outperforming the national growth rate by 2.8%. Not far behind was the Leisure and Hospitality industry, which added 4,900 jobs over the month, followed by Information, adding 1,900 jobs and Manufacturing industry adding 1,900 jobs.

Texas’ seasonally adjusted total nonfarm employment dropped slightly to 14,276,300 after reporting 10,600 fewer jobs over the month, according to the data.

Since Gov. Abbott’s been in office, Texas has added more than 2.4 million jobs.

The not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Texas was 4.1%, higher than the national rate of 3.9%.

Of Texas’ Metropolitan Statistical Area not seasonally adjusted unemployment rates, Beaumont-Port Arthur reported the highest of 5.8%, followed by McAllen-Edinburg-Mission’s 5.5%, and Brownsville-Harlingen’s 5.1%.

Midland reported the lowest of 2.8%, followed by Amarillo’s 3.1%, and College Station-Bryan’s 3.1%.

“Texas has experienced remarkable workforce growth, with over 360,000 people joining the civilian labor force in the past year,” TWC Commissioner Representing Labor Alberto Treviño III said. “TWC offers a wide variety of training programs and resources to help Texans gain new skills and achieve their career goals in our robust Texas economy.”

The TWC offers free in-person and online learning programs and resources through local Workforce Solutions offices, which can be found here.

U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., who serves as the House Armed Service Committee chairman, told a local radio station that he expects that Trump will reverse the Biden administration’s decision shortly after taking office.

Rogers also thinks that construction on a Huntsville facility will begin next year.

“I’ve told y’all since Biden made that crooked decision, it wasn’t going to work,” Rogers told Mobile radio FM Talk 106.5 this week. “As you know, on the Armed Services Committee, I put a hold on any money being spent in Colorado Springs after President Biden came in and stole that mission away. And I told everybody then that Colorado Springs will not be the future capital or location of Space Command. It will be Huntsville, Alabama, who won at fair and square. And President Trump said in the campaign that he was going to reverse that decision if elected. But I knew he would because if you remember, not only did Alabama win two nationwide competitions, but President Trump’s secretary of the Air Force recommended Huntsville, President Biden’s Secretary of the Air Force recommended Huntsville, and then Biden took it away for political reasons.”

Huntsville, also known as Rocket City, is home to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center; Colorado Springs is home to over 45,000 active duty U.S. soldiers. The U.S. Air Force Academy is a few miles north of Colorado Springs.

Rogers also said that he does not expect House Democrats to oppose the decision.

“Keep in mind, you know, in the House Armed Services Committee, the Democrats weren’t pushing back against Trump putting it there because it won,” Rogers told 1819 News. “You’ll remember, (Democratic Alabama Congressman) Terri Sewell was very active on our committee. (Ranking Democratic Congressman) Adam Smith remained silent, which tells you everything you needed to know on the issue. I have every confidence that if, for some reason, we didn’t take control of the House, Adam Smith and the Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee would do nothing to try to interfere with the U.S.-based command being constructed in Huntsville.”

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis pushed back on the notion in a post to X.

“Colorado is the rightful home for Space Command, no matter who occupies the White House. Colorado’s space and military assets are critical to our national security,” the governor said. “Colorado is the premier location for our service members and their families to train, live, work, and retire. We will fiercely defend and have bipartisan support for Colorado’s military community.”

This excludes those who illegally entered and evaded capture, known as gotaways. CBP doesn’t publicly report gotaway data. The Center Square first reported gotaway data in 2021 after obtaining it from a Border Patrol agent. In fiscal 2023, there were over 101,000 gotaways reported in California’s two sectors and nearly 413,000 apprehensions, The Center Square exclusively reported.

Fiscal 2024 gotaway data is forthcoming, but if trends continue as they have in the past, California’s total reported illegal border crossers, including apprehensions and gotaways, are expected to surpass 625,000 in fiscal 2024. That’s up from nearly 514,000 combined in fiscal 2023.

The data also excludes inadmissibles released into California through roughly a dozen parole programs created under the Biden-Harris administration that federal judges, roughly half of state attorneys general, and Congressional Republicans argue are illegal.

California shares the smallest international border with Mexico of the four southwest border states – 137 miles. It’s nearly evenly split in linear land mileage between the CBP sectors of El Centro and San Diego.

The San Diego Sector is the largest of the two sectors, covering nearly 57,000 square miles, including 931 miles of coastal border stretching to Oregon. It shares 60 linear miles with Mexico by land and 114 coastal miles along the Pacific Ocean. The area with the greatest foot traffic includes roughly 7,000 square miles that encompasses beaches, mesas, an inland mountain range, canyons and high desert.

The greatest number of apprehensions have historically been reported in the San Diego Sector. In fiscal 2024, San Diego Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended at least 324,260 illegal border crossers, representing a 40% increase from their fiscal year 2023 apprehensions of 230,941.

San Diego Office of Field Operations reported 183,890 encounters with illegal foreign nationals in fiscal 2024, according to the data.

Now retired San Diego Sector Chief Border Patrol Agent Aaron Heitke has testified before Congress about the hardships San Diego Sector agents faced resulting from what he described as Biden-Harris administration “open border policies.” He’s described the impact of having to close Border Patrol checkpoints when illegal entries peaked in July 2022 to roughly 16,000 knowing that miles of the border were left wide open and unpatrolled.

He’s also testified how agents were ordered not to report an alarming increase in “special interest aliens” and continue to grapple with unaccompanied minors believed to be drugged, smuggled and trafficked. California agents have also expressed alarm about the volume of fentanyl pouring through the sector as federal, state and local law enforcement officers have seized enough fentanyl in one year to kill billions of people.

In the El Centro Sector, Border Patrol agents apprehended 17,484 illegal border crossers in fiscal 2024. The sector lies in the Imperial Valley of Southern California and spans 71 linear miles along the U.S.-Mexico border. Much of it is remote and dangerous, including desert and mountainous terrain where summer heat regularly exceeds 120 degrees.

El Centro Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino has expressed alarm about unaccompanied children who agents rescue “from being exploited by smugglers. These criminals are not related to the children they smuggle. These traffickers go to extreme lengths to smuggle these children – giving them sleep aids to keep them quiet.”

El Centro Chief Border Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino also told members of Congress that a surge of more than 50,000 illegal border crossers in fiscal 2023 took agents away from their primary purpose to protect the homeland. “Any time there is a surge of individuals processing care, feeding and care of those individuals takes Border Patrol agents away from their primary job of preventing bad people and bad things from coming across the border,” Bovino said.

As Texas’ border security mission, Operation Lone Star, put pressure on cartel traffickers, illegal border crossers were moved west, with the San Diego Sector becoming the epicenter of the border crisis, The Center Square first reported in February and again in April as the crisis worsened.

California has also reported an increase in Chinese illegal border crossers as federal agents continue to target California-based Chinese-linked money laundering operations linked to the Sinaloa Cartel, The Center Square reported. California sheriffs have expressed their opposition to Vice President Kamala Harris’ border policies, saying, “we do not support her,” The Center Square reported. One sheriff told members of Congress that the policies of the Biden-Harris administration and Gov. Gavin Newsom turned California into “an open territory for the cartel to do whatever it wants.”

Combined, apprehensions in California’s two sectors totaled at least 525,634, excluding gotaways. Data for both sectors is consistent with nationwide data: the overwhelming majority of illegal border crossers are single adults coming from all over the world.

The final New York Times/Siena College poll was released Friday, showing Trump and Harris in a dead tie nationally at 48%. The tie could signal good news for Trump, who was actually trailing Harris by 2 points in the same poll earlier this month.

On top of that, Democrats can and have won the national vote without winning the Electoral College.

“Trump Leads Among Men, White Voters, Midwest and South,” Siena College said in its release. “Harris Leads Among Women, Non-white Voters, Northeast and West.”

In the seven closest swing states, the races all remain basically within the margin of error, although Trump does hold a very narrow lead in all seven states, according to Real Clear Politics’ aggregation of recent polling.

Formerly competitive swing states like Florida and Ohio have gone for Trump by wide margins while Minnesota, New Mexico, and Colorado are in Harris’ camp in the latest polling.

FiveThirtyEight, another poll aggregator and analyzer, found Trump either tied or slightly ahead in the seven closest states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Joe Rogan, who hosts the most popular podcast in America, released a taped interview with Trump. The 3-hour-long interview provided an unusually long conversation with Trump in a time when candidates are often protected by aides from invasive questioning.

Rogan has expressed mixed political opinions in the past. Rogan’s podcast is most popular among men, a demographic Harris is struggling to court.

Harris participated in a CNN Town Hall this week, where she attacked Trump on a range of issues including not joining her on CNN for a second debate.

Trump reportedly wanted a debate on Fox News.

Harris herself though faced pushback from CNN’s Anderson Cooper during the Town Hall and critics afterward for refusing to directly answer questions.

Longtime Democratic strategist and key staffer in the Obama administration David Axelrod critiqued Harris for her “word salad” answers.

“When she doesn’t want to answer a question, her habit is to kind of go to word salad city and she did that on a couple of answers,” Axelrod said on the CNN panel following the town hall. “One of them was on Israel. Anderson asked a direct question: would you be stronger on Israel than Trump, and there was a seven-minute answer, but none of it related to the question he was asking.”

Harris previously took fire for her lack of media interviews. Now, she is taking fire for her answers. Several media reports have indicated Democrats are worried that Harris has slipped from her momentum weeks ago.

“There is no joy left in the Democrat Party in the final week of the campaign,” Republican strategist Nate Brand told The Center Square. “Desperation has set in for Kamala and the left. At this point in the race, the winning team is normally the one having the most fun. From McDonald’s to Madison Square Garden, clearly Trump is having a good time. Bodes well for Republicans on Election Day.”

The libertarian Cato Institute released the report, which graded states by spending, revenue and taxes. The top ten states in the rankings starting at the top are Iowa, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, South Dakota, Montana, Hawaii, Georgia, Idaho, and Vermont.

The bottom ten states, according to the analysis, are New Mexico, Missouri, Oregon, Michigan, Wisconsin, Delaware, Washington, Maine, New York and lastly, Minnesota.

The bottom six states received a grade of “F.”

Walz’ poor rating comes just weeks before the presidential election where he and his running mate Vice President Kamala Harris are in a nearly tied race with former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio.

The report explains the reasoning for Walz’ low score, pointing to a series of tax hikes under his leadership as well as spending increasing by 36% since 2022, from from about $52 billion to nearly $71 billion.

From the report:

In 2019, Walz’s budget would have added ‘$2 billion more in new spending and taxes would increase by $1.3 billion to pay for it, with the rest of the money coming from an existing surplus.’ But he compromised with the legislature, and the final tax increase was about $330 million annually. Walz also pushed for higher gas taxes and higher vehicle fees to raise about $1 billion annually for transportation, but those increases were rejected.

Walz pushed for more tax hikes in 2021. He proposed adding a new individual income tax rate of 10.85 percent above the current top rate of 9.85 percent, a surtax on capital gains and dividends, and a hike to the corporate tax rate from 9.8 percent to 11.25 percent. The proposals—which would have raised about $1.6 billion annually—were rejected by the legislature…

Walz hit the middle class with HF 2887, which raised taxes and fees on vehicles and transportation. The increases included indexing the gas tax for inflation, increasing vehicle registration taxes, raising fees on deliveries, and raising sales taxes in the Twin Cities area.

At an event in Dallas held on the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack against Israel held by the nonprofit America for Israel, Cruz said after the attack, the State Department’s Office of Palestinian Affairs tweeted, “Israel must not respond. There must be no military response.” He replied, saying, “This is disgraceful. Whoever wrote it should be fired and it should be deleted.” Within minutes, the post was deleted, he said.

The next day, October 8, 2023, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted that he’d spoken to the Turkish foreign minister “and we have agreed that Israel must not retaliate and there must be no military response whatsoever,” Cruz said.

Turkey’s president also compared Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Nazi leader Adolph Hitler and called for “an alliance of humanity” to stop his “murder network.”

Cruz said Blinken’s position was “utterly disgraceful” and his social media post “should be deleted again. They deleted it within minutes,” he said.

Israel must eliminate the Islamic terrorist organizations, Hamas and Hezbollah, largely funded by Iran, Cruz says, because it’s “unquestionably in the national security interest of Israel and unquestionably in the national security interest of America.”

One year into the conflict with Hamas, Iran launched 200 missiles at Israel. Afterwards, President Joe Biden told reporters that “all seven of us [G7 country leaders] agree that they [Israel] have a right to respond but they should respond proportionally.” France’s president called for a ceasefire and an Israeli weapons embargo.

At the Dallas event, a member of the Israeli Knesset questioned Biden’s remarks and Cruz said those calling for a cease fire with terrorists were “siding with genocidal maniacs.”

Israeli MK Ohad Tal, Knesset Chair US/Israel Relations Caucus, asked what a proportionate response would be to Iran “terrorizing Israel for 30 years, building a network of proxies all around the Middle East in order to attack Israel.”

He cited “Hezbollah launching 150,000 ballistic missiles, Shiite militias in Syria with 40,000 soldiers, same number of militias in Iraq, the Houthis in Yemen and so many other forces.” He said Iran “sent Hamas on October 7 to slaughter, to burn families alive. Hezbollah shot at Israel about 1,200 rockets only in the past year. … Are we supposed to go to Iran to rape, to slaughter, to kill, to burn” Iranians, he asked. “Is this what we’re supposed to do? … We are supposed to wait for Iran to arm their missiles with nuclear warheads?”

Everyone in the west and America “should wake up and realize that we are serving the same purpose” against Iran, he said. “We are fighting your war.”

In a social media post, Netanyahu explained that “Israel is defending itself on 7 fronts against the enemies of civilization. We’re fighting in Gaza against Hamas, those savages who murdered, raped, beheaded, and burned our people on October 7. We’re fighting in Lebanon against Hezbollah, the most heavily armed terror organization, which was planning an even greater massacre than October 7 on our northern borders, and that has rocketed Israeli towns and cities for nearly a year.

“We’re fighting against the Houthis in Yemen and the Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria that together have launched hundreds of drones and missile attacks against Israel. We’re fighting against terrorists in Judea and Samaria who are trying to murder civilians in the heart of our cities. And we’re fighting against Iran, which last week fired over 200 ballistic missiles directly at Israel, and which stands behind the seven-front war against Israel.”

Netanyahu said, “all civilized countries should be standing firmly by Israel’s side.” While some western leaders call for an arms embargo against Israel, he asked if Iran was imposing one on Hezbollah, the Houthis or Hamas.

With or without the west’s support, Netanyahu said, “Israel is defending civilizations against those who seek to impose a dark age of fanaticism on all of us. … Israel will fight until the battle is won, for our sake and for the sake of the peace and security of the entire world.”

On Wednesday, Biden spoke with Netanyahu and “affirmed his ironclad commitment to Israel’s security” and “condemned unequivocally” Iran’s ballistic missile attack, according to a read out of the call issued by the White House.

Biden also “emphasized the need for a diplomatic arrangement” between Israel and Lebanon, urged Israel “to renew diplomacy” with Hamas “to release the hostages” still being held for over one year, and facilitate humanitarian aid to Gaza, the statement says.

When it comes to the leaders of countries and terrorist groups that refer to Israel as “the little Satan” and to America as “the great Satan,” Cruz said, “The enemies of Israel are enemies of America. American policy should very simply be we stand unequivocally with Israel for as long as it takes.”

“If history teaches anything, it is that when somebody tells you they want to kill you, believe them,” he said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom appears to be taking actions to regulate gasoline on two fronts — through the legislature, and CARB, which consists of 14 voting members — 12 of whom are appointed by the governor without State Senate confirmation.

“In September of last year, CARB estimated that the change could lift gasoline prices 47 cents a gallon, or $6.4 billion a year,” reported the Los Angeles Times. “Other analysts put the price even higher — 65 cents a gallon, or $8.8 [billion] a year.”

It’s unclear how much the new refinery regulations — which would give the state power to tell refineries when they’re allowed to shut down for maintenance and repairs, and determine how much inventory of gasoline to maintain on hand in case refineries have to be shut down — would cost. However, a broad coalition of Republicans, Democrats, neighboring governors, and even labor unions is opposing the measure, which does seem ready to pass.

The small group of labor organizations that came out against the bill — employed in energy trades — shared a number of safety and even electoral concerns.

“This issue is readily being used against our candidate in those states and beyond,” wrote the coalition regarding the potential direct implications for the swing states of Arizona and Nevada that rely on California for gasoline, and the use of California’s climate positions as a tool to attack Democrats nationally more broadly. “If we cannot be heard and believed on issues that could jeopardize the lives of our members, something is very wrong in CA. Every member who votes for this bill should be prepared to answer if something goes wrong”

Assemblymember Joe Patterson, R-Rocklin, said that he believes most legislators actually no longer support the bill but feel strong-armed by the governor.

“The legislature honestly needs to stand up for itself and tell [Newsom] no. I’m guessing the vast majority of legislators want this bill to die,” said Patterson on X. “We shouldn’t do it just because of the Governor’s strange obsession with this weird policy to give bureaucrats power over gasoline production.”

CARB will be voting on the new amendments to the state’s low carbon fuel standard on November 8, just days after the presidential election, on whether or not to adopt new, stricter standards that will make it harder to generate LCFS credits, and require more LCFS credits to be purchased.

As can be seen in CARB data, the LCFS has been so successful that as of April 2024, the most recent data point, the reduction in carbon intensity of the state’s fuel system is already past the goal for 2026. While the widespread availability of LCFS credits has reduced emissions, the rapid scaling of the desired LCFS credit-producing technologies has also reduced the value of individual credits.

Should the new, more strict LCFS requirements be adopted, fewer credits would qualify, and the cost of credits would go up, but much of the billions of dollars invested in existing infrastructure to generate LCFS credits could turn worthless overnight.

California’s gas taxes are already the highest in the nation, with federal, state, and local taxes and fees adding approximately $1.62 per gallon, which is significantly more than the difference between California and national gas prices. If the LCFS is approved, California gasoline could cost approximately $2.09 to $2.27 per gallon more than the national average, a move that could drive more consumers to electric cars, or out of the state entirely.

The National Federation of Independent businesses on Monday released the survey, which showed small business uncertainty rose last month to the highest level ever recorded by NFIB.

“Small business owners are feeling more uncertain than ever,” NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg said in a statement.

Small businesses have been crushed by inflation in recent years, with prices rising more than 20% since President Joe Biden took office. Pandemic-era shutdowns and supply chain issues also put many businesses in debt or drained their savings.

Many larger businesses had more reserves or access to capital to help them survive COVID while smaller businesses went under.

“Twenty-three percent of owners reported that inflation was their single most important problem in operating their business (higher input and labor costs), down one point from August but remaining the top issue,” NFIB said.

Inflation has slowed from its feverish pace earlier in Biden’s term, but prices remain elevated.

“A net negative 17% of all owners (seasonally adjusted) reported higher nominal sales in the past three months, down one point from August and the lowest reading of this year,” NFIB said. “The net percent of owners expecting higher real sales volumes rose nine points to a net negative 9% (seasonally adjusted).”

Small business owners have also reported difficulty with the labor market.

“Uncertainty makes owners hesitant to invest in capital spending and inventory, especially as inflation and financing costs continue to put pressure on their bottom lines,” Dunkelberg continued. “Although some hope lies ahead in the holiday sales season, many Main Street owners are left questioning whether future business conditions will improve.”