Clearly, Gavin Newsom hasn’t ever pumped his own gas in California or else money has never been a concern.

His X account on Wednesday carried a dire warning for California drivers to avoid buying Chevron gas over the Memorial Day weekend.

The reason?

The state energy commission, part of the vast Sacramento bureaucracy he’s been overseeing for nearly eight years, conducted an analysis that shows Chevron stations charged between 60 and 80 cents per gallon more than “off brand” gasoline.

Then the governor let Californians in on what he called a “pro tip.”

The secret? The gas comes from the same refineries.

Now, I’ve never rubbed elbows with the elite sans face mask at the ritzy French Laundry in Napa Valley as Newsom did during the pandemic when he mandated masks, but I’ve known since I was 15 that was the case about oil refineries.

And the state didn’t have to devote who knows much manpower on the taxpayers’ dime that Chevron — as well as Shell — charge significantly more per gallon than off-brand gas stations.

That was even true back in the 1970s and further back long before the state mandated reformulated gas to reduce air pollution.

If Newsom were part of the masses he masked, he would have known Chevron charges more.

It is a business plan that has worked well based on their marketing hype, cute little car mascots, and credit cards.

For generations — including Newom’s — a gas credit card was often the first credit card young workers, in what has been called “car crazy California”, were able to obtain.

It allowed you to buy gas when you were low on funds and when gas stations wouldn’t take checks.

Debit cards changed the dynamics.

The bottom line is marketing and building familiarity works.

Chevron stations can be counted on to have squeegees that didn’t see their better days in the Jerry Brown administration, clean windshield water once in a while and even paper towels at some locations to dry windows.

At some odd-brand stations, you’re lucky I’d they have the remnants of a squeegee and add water once a week.

That said, only a driver that is a complete idiot wouldn’t already know Chevron charges more. Borrowing from a dated Wells Fargo Bank advertising line, they always have and always will.

By the way, why isn’t Newsom warning Californians not to bank at Wells Fargo or Bank of America as they tend to have higher fees and minimum balance requirements than regional banks?

Having the governor essentially calling for a boycott of a legal business because they charge more than a competitor for the same product is taking political retribution to a new level.

It follows Chevron posting signs at its stations blaming the state’s climate polices for the high price of gas in California.

Question the wisdom of state policies and the governor will use his bully pulpit to hurt your business.

Governors and politicians being irked about push back from the oil companies is nothing new in California.

Twenty or so years ago when some gas stations started posting signs near their doors how much state and federal excise taxes are on a gallon of gas besides sales tax, Sacramento politicians expressed their displeasure.

Transparency in the cost of gasoline — i.e. “big oil company” quarterly profit gains — is one thing as long as it doesn’t attribute any blame to state policies and taxes.

One wonders how a young entrepreneur Newsom back in 1992 as a 26 year-old co-founding PlumpJack Wine & Spirits in San Francisco with billionaire heir Gordon Getty would react if a politician with a bully pulpit used it to encourage consumers not to shop at his business.

PlumpJack’s business model wasn’t low cost alcohol and wine. It was designed to make buying wine and alcohol more approachable.

It’s in the same wheel house as Chevron’s marketing and pricing strategy.

Imagine what Newsom would have done if then San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan issued a press release urging consumers to not buy booze at PlumpJack over the New Year’s Eve weekend.

And in that release, he reminded consumers that places like BevMo or Costco often have the same selection but at a lower cost.

The press release could even call it a “pro tip” in noting it’s often the same product

It could add the fact you can get the same buzz much like Newsom in attacking Chevron notes off brands keep your car engine just as clean as the gas was refined to the same standards.

Newsom had to toss into his X account that “Big Oil is already making millions off of Trump’s Iran War; don’t let them rip you off even more by overpaying for the brand name.”

Of course, Newsom didn’t mention that for an extra dollar a gallon you pay above the off-brand gas the state pockets another 10 in sales tax and gas tax.