Oil

It's time for California to debate the pros and cons of cap-and-trade, the program that caps carbon emissions and lets companies trade any extra pollution allowances to cut them. Jerry Brown wants to extend the program so badly beyond 2020 that he has slipped it into a budget trailer bill. More than 20 advocacy groups, including Food & Water Watch and Consumer Watchdog, are saying not so fast in a letter to an Assembly budget subcomittee.

Big Oil and Gas may have a tight grip on California, but a popular backlash against the industry and its corrupt relationships in the halls of power could lead to the prying off of its fingers one by one.

The Energy Commission committee charged with finding a solution for California’s high gas prices has sometimes been a hostile place for consumers over the last year and a half. At Tuesday's meeting, that changed. The Air Resources Board, NRDC, four members of the committee, and even oil trader Vitol SA echoed Consumer Watchdog to question refiners' market power and lack of transparency for price spikes.