Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford Seeks $2,000 Fuel Rebate for State Households

In Carson City, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford asked President Donald Trump last week to send Nevada households $2,000 checks to offset rising fuel costs. Ford also asked his Republican opponent, Gov. Joe Lombardo, to sign the letter.

Ford's request comes amid record fuel prices in the state. On Wednesday, the average price of a gallon of diesel in Nevada reached $6.85, just below the record of $6.87 set on Oct. 21, according to AAA. Regular unleaded gasoline averaged $5.27 per gallon in Nevada, the third-highest price in the country behind California and Hawaii, about $1 higher than the national average of $4.25.

David Damore, a political science professor at UNLV, said the request is unlikely to result in checks for residents. "There is no possibility that this strategy will succeed," Damore said. He added that the letter draws attention to affordability, which he called a top concern for voters, and places responsibility for the cost crisis on the president's policies.

The Lombardo campaign responded to the letter on Oct. 21. "Two weeks from Election Day, Aaron Ford promises $2,000 checks without a plan to pay for them or deliver them," the campaign posted. It also accused Ford of traveling out of state more than 420 days as attorney general rather than acting on gas prices. The campaign highlighted Lombardo's role in a bipartisan initiative against California fuel policies, a temporary sales tax exemption proposal, and the creation of a Fuel Resilience Committee.

Ford has acknowledged that a governor has little control over gas prices. Instead, he points to actions a governor can take, such as free school lunches, caps on certain prescription drug prices, and limits on security deposits. Both the free lunch policy and prescription drug caps were vetoed by Lombardo. Ford released a housing plan in January that included a commitment to limit security deposits to one month of rent instead of the current three months.

A July analysis by Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee estimated that Nevada households have spent $460 more on gasoline since the war with Iran began. The $2,000 figure cited by Nevada Democrats comes from a Moody's Analytics estimate of the annual cost of Trump's economic policies to households.