I know the politicians in Sacramento drool over this prospect -- but I don't know if they really need to do this. They've run an effective 'end around' over the past few years by coming up with new 'fees' for almost anything... Who needs to raise taxes when you can implement/raise fees by fiat.
In addition, I believe Sacramento really wants the gasoline prices to continue to increase. This spike over the past two years has been an unexpected for those folks in the Capitol who couldn't balance a budget if their lives dependent on it. Because the gas tax includes a sales tax that is a percentage of the gasoline price per gallon - Sacramento has gotten a good boost to their revenue. They'll block off-shore drilling, or anything, that might drive the gas prices down...
Good thing that we're not relying on the temporal - because I don't see digging out of this financial hole with the leaders we have (and given that 'we've' voted them in -- we get what we deserve)...
I checked the sales tax on Gas, and California's gasoline consumption, and came up with ~$2 billion windfall to California's revenue due to the $2/gallon spike we've seen since the Dems took control of Congress:
With a 6% Sales Tax + a 1.25% County Tax (or a cumulative 7.25% tax that stays within the state) on gasoline sales - California is raking in the dough with this $2/gallon spike that's occurred since the Dems took control of Congress. In 2007 California consumed 15.7 billion gallons of gasoline, so we're talking an added ~ $2 billion boon (7.25% x $2/gallon x 15.7 billion gallons) to Sacramento's budget - that the Dems probably didn't anticipate.