SACRAMENTO — With steep gasoline prices still stinging Californians at the pump, Democratic Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon on Monday announced a legislative inquiry to determine if oil companies are “ripping off” drivers.

Combined with the highest inflation rate in four decades, California’s highest-in-the nation gas prices remain a volatile political issue in the midst of an election year, and Republican lawmakers continue to attack the Legislature’s Democratic leadership for failing to take quick action to provide relief.

Rendon said the Assembly select committee will consider what measures the state can enact to reduce gas prices and “stand up to the profiteers who are abusing a historic situation to suck profits from California’s wallets.”