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California’s governor has asked the attorney general to investigate why the state’s gas prices are so high, pointing to a new report suggesting big oil companies are “misleading and overcharging customers” by as much as $1 per gallon.
California's governor wants to know why gas prices are higher than in the rest of the country, blaming "inappropriate industry practices" Tuesday rather than the state's higher taxes and tougher environmental regulations.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom asked the California Energy Commission for an analysis of the state's gas prices by May 15. California drivers were paying an average of $4.03 per gallon Tuesday, or $1.18 more than the national average, according to AAA.
Other than who is investigating, what has changed in the last 6 months. Both times the Governor called for these investigations, he essentially blamed "big oil" for “misleading and overcharging customers" and "inappropriate industry practices" as causing the high prices before even beginning the investigation. The new report referenced appears to be the report from the previous investigation of industry practices that said “does not have any evidence that gasoline retailers fixed prices or engaged in false advertising”.
The timing of these is also somewhat suspicious - These investigations seem to be roughly aligned with required blend switchovers between summer and winter blends. Are they really interested in what is causing the issue and what could bring down gas prices or are they just looking for corporate scapegoat?
To me, it seems pretty obvious that much of the price difference is driven because of policies that the California Energy Commission, CARB, the CA legislature and the CA governor have forced on the state's drivers but maybe there are other factors driving it. Is this a sincere effort to see what is causing these high prices or is it really a political ploy to deflect complaints about the high gas prices by blaming "big oil" and not CA Policy? Is politics driving the purpose and timing of these investigations - What do you think?
Currently CA pays the highest prices for gas in the country and almost $0.50 more than the second highest, Hawaii and about $1.90 more than the lowest, Louisiana - prices according to gasbuddy.com. California has the highest gas tax also at 79.60 cents per gallon.
Some of the items that potentially drive these high prices are;
1. higher gas taxes in CA
2. required special blend for California that is mainly made at in-state refineries
3. shutdowns required to change summer - winter blends 2x a year that must be recouped
4. older refineries that require more maintenance and causes unplanned shutdowns and sometimes shortages
5. planned shutdowns that may be profit driven to cause temporary shortages
6. regulations and cost factors that prevent building new refining capacity easily
7. emission regulations on refineries that cause cost of refining to be more expensive
8. other factors such as higher salaries, work regulations, etc. that may be more costly in CA
Some of these are CA policy driven, some are driven by Oil refineries, some are both
None of that list is oil company ... it’s all California “required”.
Governor Idiot should just go with the Leftist Standard ... the Russians are doing it!
It’s California and their designer gasoline coupled with high taxes.
The Voters in California are responsible.... the actually voted FOR these policies, they can change it by voting them out. They Voted for all the California mess, so they have nothing to complain about.
California is the most mismanaged state in the U.S. Their political leadership is guilty of malfeasance. It is obvious why gasoline, and everything else is more expensive there.
California is the most mismanaged state in the U.S. Their political leadership is guilty of malfeasance. It is obvious why gasoline, and everything else is more expensive there.
Yet we have more jobs than any other state. The job creators love us.
I was in California months ago and the gas prices were outrageous even then.
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