Energy prices are no small matter to small businesses, which listed them as their sixth biggest worry in National Federation of Independent Business’ latest Small Business Problems & Priorities report, a 13-place jump from their 2020 ranking of 19th. The report ranks a total of 75 issues.

Small business owners are doubtful from experience about the efficacy of government intervention in the day-to-day operations of any business. If the Legislature really wanted to do something substantive to battle inflation, it should have reduced the gas tax.

ABX2-1 — signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom Monday — aside, every Californian who drives a vehicle for any reason is staring down the barrel of a half-dollar-per-gallon increase in their gas taxes when the California Air Resources Board votes on its Low Carbon Fuel Standard regulation next month. How much more will ABX2-1 exacerbate the problem? It’s no wonder that when NFIB last surveyed its small-business-owning membership, uncertainty was at a historic high.

Newsom recently called a special legislative session to consider controversial new controls on state oil refineries, and the California Air Resources Board — the state agency tasked with regulating planet-warming emissions — soon will consider stricter limits on the carbon intensity of fuels.

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

Now, as CARB nears a November vote on its low carbon fuel standard, or LCFS, the agency is backing away from its price hike forecast. Recently, an air board official told legislators that the 47-cents-a-gallon estimate was just a ‘snapshot’ based on a forecasting model that ‘can never capture real world conditions.’ However, the agency has refused to offer a revised estimate to the public.

Enough is enough. Struggling California small businesses, workers, and families deserve better than government leaders advancing dark-of-night policies that will raise prices and shut more doors on Main Street.

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John Kabateck is the California state director for the National Federation of Independent Business.