{"id":348747,"date":"2024-10-25T08:22:39","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T06:22:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=348747"},"modified":"2024-10-25T08:22:42","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T06:22:42","slug":"california-keeps-driving-up-gas-prices-with-layers-and-layers-of-green-rules-and-regs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=348747","title":{"rendered":"California Keeps Driving Up Gas Prices With \u2018Layers And Layers\u2019 Of Green Rules And Regs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Daily Caller<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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Nick Pope<\/a>
<\/strong>Contributor<\/p>\n\n\n\n

California\u2019s latest law cracking down on fuel refiners in the state is likely to drive already-high prices at the pump even higher, according to several energy experts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed<\/a> ABX2-1 into law on Oct. 14, empowering state bureaucrats to require refiners to maintain certain inventory levels in an effort to prevent alleged price gouging by energy companies and adding to the list of anti-fossil fuel industry policies and regulations in the state. Along with rules already on the books, the new policy will further squeeze refiners and fuel producers, undermine supply and send prices even higher with the help of other costly rules on the books regulating the fossil fuel industry, according to several energy sector experts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At about $4.64, California already has the highest per-gallon gas prices of any state in the U.S., according<\/a> to AAA gas price data. In the week since the bill became law, Phillips 66 announced that it plans to close one of its refineries in the Los Angeles area in 2025, meaning that one of California\u2019s nine refineries and 8% of the state\u2019s available refining capacity will be closing down, according<\/a> to the Los Angeles Times. (RELATED: What Has California\u2019s War On Fossil Fuels Actually Accomplished?)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPrice spikes have cost Californians billions of dollars over the years, and we\u2019re not waiting around for the industry to do the right thing \u2014 we\u2019re taking action to prevent these price spikes and save consumers money at the pump,\u201d Newsom said<\/a> upon signing the bill. \u201cNow, the state has the tools to make sure they backfill supplies and plan ahead for maintenance so there aren\u2019t shortages that drive up prices. I\u2019m grateful to our partners in the Senate and Assembly for acting quickly to push this forward and help deliver relief for Californians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Patrick De Haan, a prominent gas market analyst who writes for GasBuddy, rejects Newsom\u2019s contention that energy companies are ripping off Californians. He instead places most of the blame for the state\u2019s high energy costs at the feet of overzealous regulators and politicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt can\u2019t be understated \u2014 it\u2019s not the oil industry \u2018screwing you\u2019 in California, it\u2019s hell-bent politicians with layers and layers of costly legislation,\u201d De Haan wrote in an Oct. 15 post<\/a> to X, formerly Twitter. \u201cIt\u2019s more Newsom\u2019s government than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Haan also expects other refiners to follow in Phillips 66\u2019s footsteps and close down California refineries in the wake of ABX2-1\u2019s passage, he wrote in a separate post<\/a>. About 90% of the gasoline consumed in the state is refined at in-state facilities, according<\/a> to the California Energy Commission, so prices would likely increase in the event of more refinery closures as supply decreases and if all else is held equal. (RELATED: Energy, Business Groups Ask Supreme Court To Stop California From Forcing EVs On The Rest Of America)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey keep running around talking about how companies are price gouging. In reality, it\u2019s the politicians. You just wonder when people are going to wake up,\u201d Dan Kish, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Energy Research, told the DCNF. \u201cWhat they\u2019re clearly doing is they want all electric vehicles, and so they\u2019re driving up the cost of gasoline every way they can to do it. They\u2019re making gas more scarce and more expensive, and they hope that this will help \u2018nudge,\u2019 as they like to say, people into doing what they want them to do, rather than listen to the citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newsom\u2019s office disputes that state policy is primarily responsible for driving up gas prices in the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGas prices overwhelmingly consist of crude oil costs and industry profits,\u201d a spokesperson for Newsom said in an email to the Daily Caller News Foundation. \u201cAnalyses have shown that the legislation last week will save Californians upwards of billions of dollars every year,\u201d the spokesperson continued, further referring the DCNF to Newsom\u2019s remarks at a press conference announcing the new refinery law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlso, gas prices are significantly lower this year than in past years \u2014 after the Governor signed into law new accountability and transparency tools,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andy Walz, president of downstream, midstream and chemicals for Chevron, slammed ABX2-1 in an Oct. 8 letter<\/a> to California lawmakers describing how the bill is likely to increase costs at the pump for consumers in a misguided attempt to prevent supposed price gouging. In the letter, Walz wrote that the new law is evidently political rather than practical, and that it will make gas even more expensive for Californians in the long-run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCalifornia\u2019s policy choices have led to a gasoline shortage by driving suppliers away,\u201d Walz wrote. \u201cWe have a shortage of incentivizing policy for additional refiners and supply. California, stop making consumer conditions worse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new law for refineries is not the only policy in California that is expected to increase gas prices in the near future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) will decide after Election Day whether to tighten the state\u2019s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), a program that aims to decrease the carbon intensity of transportation fuels in the state, according<\/a> to Politico. CARB initially estimated that doing so could raise prices at the pump by 47 cents per-gallon, though CARB subsequently walked back that projection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Danny Cullenward, a climate economist at the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, recently published his own analysis<\/a> projecting that CARB\u2019s forthcoming LCFS decision could actually jack up prices by 65 cents per-gallon in the near future and by 85 cents per-gallon come 2030.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, California has a statewide cap-and-trade program that sets a declining limit on major sources of emissions across the state to incentivize corporations to adopt low-emitting green technologies. Walz named California\u2019s cap-and-trade program as one of the most aggressive regulatory schemes in the state that contributed to his company\u2019s August decision to relocate its headquarters to Texas and out of California in an August interview<\/a> with the DCNF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are two reasons that gas is more expensive in California, and neither of them have to do with price gouging. The first reason, which we\u2019re all very familiar with, is the extra taxes that are added on,\u201d Edward Ring, the director of water and energy policy for the California Policy Center, told the DCNF. \u201cWhen you take all of the state taxes, fees and programs, you\u2019re going to add another $1.23 to the price of a gallon of gas, and that\u2019s not including the 18 cents a gallon of federal excise tax.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow, the other part, which is worth mentioning, to be fair, is California does have a different formulation that they require for gasoline that does make it a little bit more expensive to refine, but again, that\u2019s not that big a factor,\u201d Ring continued. \u201cIf California wants to spare its citizens the high cost of gas, they should maybe figure out how to run the state for a little bit less money, because they\u2019re doing a terrible job anyway, and they could lower these taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CARB did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter\u2019s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

California\u2019s latest law cracking down on fuel refiners in the state is likely to drive already-high prices at the pump even higher, according to several energy experts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":348751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818068,691829370,691831091,691818069,691821634],"class_list":{"0":"post-348747","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-gov-gavin-newsom","10":"tag-fuel-refining","11":"tag-gas-prices","12":"tag-gasoline","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/074501776007-usatsi-22838670.webp?fit=3200%2C1800&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1sIX","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":251463,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=251463","url_meta":{"origin":348747,"position":0},"title":"California Gov. Newsom to make gas prices even higher!","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/04\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"t is the latest instance in which the Governor has successfully taken on the historically powerful industry for putting profits over people. 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