government Gavin Newsom did something new for him. He became aggressively involved behind the scenes, negotiating with lawmakers. And it paid off.

Personal, hands-on, face-to-face involvement, the kind that’s unusual for this governor.

,

As a result, Newsom won a huge political and policy victory

big oil,

will no doubt remind Californians and tell all of America for years to come.

The governor didn’t get everything he originally asked for. The legislature rejected his initial idea. But he wisely backed off and settled for less.

Actually, what Newsom got was more practical and much more superior to what he first wanted.

This is 10 times better, he acknowledged Tuesday at a signing ceremony in the Capitol rotunda.

We have proven that we can really beat Big Oil.

There’s a new sheriff in town. … We brought Big Oil to their knees.

Among the liberal Democrats who run California’s state government, the oil industry has replaced Big Tobacco as the No. 1 bogeyman. Tobacco has become so politically weak that it no longer makes much sense to attack it.

The California Democratic Party does not accept contributions from oil interests. But moderate Democratic candidates will. An independent commission funded by four oil companies spent more than $8 million on legislative races during last year’s election. So the oil lobby still packs a punch in the legislature.

But polls show that the public is increasingly concerned about climate change and the greenhouse gas emissions emitted by gasoline cars.

Climate and record high gas prices last year along with the knowledge that Californians at one point paid $2.60 per gallon more than the national average are driving strong public support in the Capitol for the fight against the oil industry.

But it wasn’t enough support for lawmakers to accede to Newsom’s initial request. In a typically impassioned announcement in September, he called for the greedy Big Oil to be punished with a windfall profit tax.

The T word was eventually changed to fine to make it more like a fee. A fee would require only a simple legislative majority rather than a two-thirds supermajority.

They’re ripping you off, Newsom said. With the legislature, we would pass a price gouging fine to hold Big Oil accountable.

Not so nearly. Legislators are resisting. Neither she nor the governor had evidence that oil companies were gutting. And they didn’t have the expertise to determine when profit became an unwarranted windfall.

How do you do income tax? No one in the United States or in the world has been able to do that, a senior legislative aide told me.

But Democrats loyal to the governor wanted to give him a victory.

So Newsom switched gears and offered a better plan: take the whole thing to the California Energy Commission.

Create a new independent research division, require oil refiners to share long-hidden data with the unit, and let the experts determine whether there are gouges and windfalls.

The energy commission could then set a limit on justifiable profits and penalize refiners that exceed it. The punishment would presumably be a fine or a job-killing tax, if you’re a Republican supporter of the oil industry.

After that, Newsom didn’t just pontificate. He rolled up his sleeves and worked with skeptical legislators to write a finished bill.

This governor has already built up more than a reputation

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promise and fail to deliver make grandiose statements but fail to deliver. Dumping proposals on the legislature, but standing aloof and not helping to get them passed. That angered lawmakers.

However, at the start of his last term in office, Newsom seems to realize that if he is going to deliver groundbreaking feats, time is running out. This year and next year are crucial. Not much is likely

I

be reached in its crippled senior year, 2026.

Newsom took to the floor about this, says Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, an activist organization that pushed hard for the legislation. He met with more than a dozen stakeholder groups.

More important

ly

he treated legislators.

The governor weighed in for the first time at a level I’ve never seen from him, says a top legislative adviser who asked for anonymity.

He met individuals, small groups, both Democratic primaries. He owned it completely. He said, this is mine. I want to see through it.

He spent considerable amounts of time. I’ve never seen this governor go all in like this. It was all hands on deck.

Newsom had wanted the legislature to enact a fine that would hit refiners from Day onwards

1 one

. Lawmakers refused. Now it can take up to a year to penalize windfall profits, whatever they are. That was the main compromise. That and getting the whole thing out of the legislature’s hair.

The governor realized that he was better off with the energy commission after all. After all, he appoints the five members.

The result: celebration

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line votes of 52

– Unpleasant

19 in the Assembly and 30

– Unpleasant

8 in the Senate.

It’s a big step in the right direction, says Severin Borenstein, UC faculty director

Berkeley

Energy Institute and an expert on gasoline production. Moving the fine or tax debate to an organization that can actually do analytics is a much better way to go.

You have to admire the governor’s pivot. … He has positioned himself as someone who is up against the oil industry.

He did just that last year by signing legislation banning new oil drilling within 1,000 yards of a home, school or park. But the oil industry spent $20 million to qualify for a repeal measure for the 2024 vote. So those battles aren’t over.

The latest anti-oil legislation meets what appears to be Newsom’s main criteria for establishing any policy: it is

the

first in the nation.

But especially for the governor, it is a great victory to start his second term.