The same politicians that keep voting to increase taxes and regulations on all things gas and oil related. LOL

https://reason.com/2019/04/24/...r-gallon-gas-prices/

“Why oh why is this happening?”

They’re only going through the motions to appease their retarded constituency.

Phillips Petroleum has a refinery outside the San Fran area, near Rodeo CA. My daughter and I toured it. It's a much smaller refinery than they have here at Wood River, or in Oklahoma where she now works.

It's very expensive to make gas for that market.
If I were a major oil company, I'd tell CA to pound sand. I'd say it's not worth the trouble to sell in California. Let Californians drive out of state and buy their gas...

From the article linked above:

quote:

California currently imposes the second-highest gas taxes in the country. A state excise tax currently adds $.417 per gallon, a rate that will increase to $.473 come July. On top of that, the state imposes a 2.25 percent gasoline sales tax.

In addition, California has adopted a low-carbon fuel standard and a cap-and-trade scheme for carbon emissions which together increase the state's gas prices by $.24 per gallon above the national average, according to a 2017 state government report.

when I drive over to CA to work, I fill the tank in either Yuma or Quartzite, AZ

if I recall, as soon as I cross the border, gas is $1 a gallon more but my rental doesn't get any better gas mileage or I don't get any additional benefits. Fortunately I can get to LA and back to AZ border on a tank if I'm careful

Gas is high in Cali because of all the custom blends that they require. The ignorant politicians should investigate themselves.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:
Phillips Petroleum has a refinery outside the San Fran area, near Rodeo CA. My daughter and I toured it. It's a much smaller refinery than they have here at Wood River, or in Oklahoma where she now works.

It's very expensive to make gas for that market.
If I were a major oil company, I'd tell CA to pound sand. I'd say it's not worth the trouble to sell in California. Let Californians drive out of state and buy their gas...

From the article linked above:

quote:

California currently imposes the second-highest gas taxes in the country. A state excise tax currently adds $.417 per gallon, a rate that will increase to $.473 come July. On top of that, the state imposes a 2.25 percent gasoline sales tax.

In addition, California has adopted a low-carbon fuel standard and a cap-and-trade scheme for carbon emissions which together increase the state's gas prices by $.24 per gallon above the national average, according to a 2017 state government report.

And in Michigan our new Governor wants to raise the gasoline tax by .45 per gallon to fund road repairs. Combine that with our present .16 per gallon plus state sales tax of .06 on the dollar will make us surpass California. Under the last Governor the gas tax went up together with registration fees and that was supposed to fix the roads. Unfortunately part of the gasoline tax is allocated to other areas in the state budget so you can guess where this is heading later on. More tax increases.

The mysteries aren't so deep but politicians don't want to go there. The causes of our high prices are:

1. Unique blend for the CA market.

2. CA will not approve new refineries so we have finite capacity and the task of keeping them running. When something breaks, we don't have excess capacity and that contributes to spikes.

3. Our gas taxes are among the highest in the nation and contribute nearly $1.30 to cost of each gallon.

4. In that tax is a 26 cent tax that's for carbon offsets but no one knows where the money is spent but sometime is getting it. The state AG has been asked to investigate but so far, there's no known action or IV going on. A state commission with jurisdiction over this to of thing was neutered by the state and expressed frustration over not being able to investigate. They reportedly had no power to compel people to testify, product documents or force other agencies to cooperate with them. It's a slush fund, IMO.

They probably don't want to put a Shell executive in the witness chair and ask her why it costs more for gas in Cali.

It would be funny of they did.

CA govt. makes more money from the sale of each gallon of gas than the oil companies profits.

Obama gave CA $5 per gallon gas, it was even referenced in a SNL skit. Did they ask for an investigation then?

Geez might have to get Sherlock and the Pinkertons on this case. I mean there certainly isn’t any obvious reason this is occurring........

Single party dictatorship has consequences.

Hears a strange question.
If you live in California close to the boarder of another state and regularly go to that state to get your gas because it is cheaper, can you get in trouble if the state finds out you are going out of state to buy gas?

https://www.latimes.com/politi...-20190423-story.html

Will Newsom end oil drilling in California? Many environmentalists are betting yes

By PHIL WILLON
APR 23, 2019 | 5:00 AM
| SACRAMENTO

California’s legacy of oil drilling should be just that, many environmentalists argue — relegated to the history books.

They are urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to ban new oil and gas drilling in California and completely phase out fossil fuel extraction in one of the nation’s top petroleum-producing — and gasoline-consuming — states.

At the least, they want the state to impose buffer zones prohibiting new oil and gas wells near schools, hospitals and residential neighborhoods and also require monitoring for potentially hazardous emissions from abandoned or plugged wells, proposals already being considered by state lawmakers.

“It sure would make us happy if he made a big splash about this. It’s month four. People are being very patient. By month six, patience may wear thin,” said Sierra Club California Director Kathryn Phillips.

Phillips said her organization and other groups that support curtailing oil production in California have met informally with Newsom administration officials. While Newsom has not made any promises, expectations remain high, she said.

Newsom, who served on the state lands commission for eight years, says he’s well versed in the issues surrounding on-shore and off-shore oil drilling in California and said he would announce his administration’s detailed strategy on energy policy in the next few weeks.

The governor was coy about core aspects of that policy, and declined to say if it would ban the controversial practice of hydraulic fracking, a process that uses drilling and large volumes of high-pressure water to extract gas and oil deposits.

“I’m taking a very pragmatic look at it, in scoping this,” Newsom told The Times last week. “It’s also an inclusive scoping because it includes people in the industry, that have jobs; communities that are impacted from an environmental justice prism but also from an economic justice prism. It’s a challenging issue. There’s a reason Gov. Brown used a lot of dexterity on this issue.”

The Democratic governor emphasized that he would not be “exercising passivity.” But Newsom also said that, despite his strong support for putting California on a path to a 100% renewable energy supply, it would be unrealistic to think that California can just stop its dependence on oil and gas.

“One cannot just turn off the switch. One cannot just immediately abut against a century of practice and policy,” Newsom said.

Though his campaign was endorsed by influential environmental groups that support curtailing oil production, Newsom must weigh the potential, widespread economic impact of undercutting a billion-dollar industry in the state. While oil production in California has been on the decline in recent years, California in 2017 was the nation’s fifth-largest crude oil producer among the nation’s 50 states, federal figures show.

Newsom also has a long personal and financial history with the heirs of the Getty Oil family. The governor’s father, the late William Newsom, was a longtime friend and former high school classmate of Gordon Getty, son of oil magnate J. Paul Getty, and managed the Getty family trust. Gordon Getty also was a longtime financial benefactor to Gavin Newsom, and for decades they were in the winery and hospitality business together. (The governor put those investments in a blind trust after he was elected in November.)

Catherine Reheis-Boyd, president of the Western States Petroleum Assn., says Newsom will take a pragmatic approach. Oil production in California helps support 368,000 “blue-collar jobs with high wages,” she said, and the state still will depend on oil and gas for fuel and energy even during its long-term transformation to a 100% renewable energy supply.

“We have, I think, close to 40 million people in the state who drive 26 million vehicles with internal-combustion engines,” Reheis-Boyd said. “You cannot have a policy that stops production of oil in California for quite some time.”

Reheis-Boyd also noted that California has some of the most strict regulations and environmental protections in the world. If the state decides to shut down oil production, it will be forced to import oil from states and countries with much lower health, environmental and safety standards — increasing risks posed to those populations.

“Without domestic oil, it would mean we would have to import oil from other countries. Now you’re looking at more truck emissions, more ship emissions, possible oil pipeline mishaps. It’s counterproductive,” said Bill La Marr, executive director of the California Small Business Alliance, which has a membership of 26,000 companies statewide.

La Marr said phasing out oil production in the state would also increase fuel prices, driving up costs for business owners and, ultimately, consumer goods.

“In the end, it’s a tax on consumers,” he said. “Most hardworking people can’t afford a brand-new Prius or a Tesla. They rely on the internal-combustion engine.”

During the 2018 gubernatorial campaign, Newsom said he opposed fracking because it posed possible health and environmental risks. Brown, his predecessor, approved restrictions on fracking but environmentalists criticized him for balking at an outright ban of fracking, saying he thought the practice might offer California some economic opportunities.

The effort to sway Newsom mimics the unsuccessful campaign by the so-called Brown’s Last Chance Coalition supported by environmental activists, community groups, labor unions and that tried to persuade Brown to freeze all new oil and gas drilling during his final year in office. Brown, who prided himself in helping California become a world leader in combating climate change and championing renewable energy, bristled at accusations that his environmental record was tarnished by a failure to take on California’s powerful oil industry.

Newsom noted that, just two days after he won the November election, those same activists held a protest outside of his house in Marin County blocking his driveway.

“My wife went down and said hello to them, spent time with them,” Newsom said. “So I’m very familiar with the debate.”

Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity said she has more confidence in Newsom than she did in Brown.

In 2018, Newsom joined other State Lands Commission members in protesting President Trump’s efforts to open the coast to offshore oil drilling, saying in a letter the move “creates undeniable peril to California’s ocean and marine environment and economy” and poses an unacceptably high risk of “catastrophic harm from an offshore oil spill.”

“He’s also been very good at pushing back hard at Trump’s climate change denials,” said Siegel, who heads the center’s climate law institute. “We need him to take that bold approach when it comes to the oil industry.”

Siegel and others say the Newsom administration should take a first step of creating health and safety buffers around oil and gas wells in urban areas.

California is home to 72,000 oil-producing wells that, in 2018, produced 165.3 million barrels of oil from both on-shore and off-shore facilities, according to the California Department of Conservation. California also consumes more gasoline than any other state — 366,000 barrels in 2017, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration.

In 2018, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health called for greater health and safety “setback” requirements on new oil and gas wells, keeping them at least 300 feet from populated areas. It also called for a significant increase in air quality monitoring within the 68 active oil fields in the Los Angeles Basin. Oils rigs, storage tanks and other operations are common sights in the working-class neighborhoods in Wilmington, Long Beach, Torrance and South Los Angeles, where oil production has plagued neighborhoods with foul odors, noise and occasional spills or refinery explosions.

Close to 900,000 Californians live within a half-mile of an active oil or gas well, with the vast majority in Los Angeles and Kern counties, according to a study by the Environmental Defense Fund. There also are 378 schools or certified daycare facilities in California that are that close to an active well, the report found.

The most publicized and politically charged case highlighting the dangers of oil and gas extraction in Southern California was in 2015, when a gas leak at the affluent San Fernando Valley community of Porter Ranch caused thousands of residents to evacuate and triggered complaints of nosebleeds, nausea and headaches. The Southern California Gas Co. agreed to pay $119.5 million to settle lawsuits brought by state and local agencies.

Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi (D-Rolling Hills Estates) introduced legislation in February to ban any new oil and gas wells, or idle wells that are redrilled, to be located with a half-mile of a residence, school, playground or a healthcare facility. Muratsuchi said he’s been focused on the issue ever since voters in Hermosa Beach blocked efforts to drill wells within 100 feet of homes.

Residents in less affluent areas should have the same protections, he said. Even in oil-rich Texas, some cities have mandatory setbacks for wells in residential areas, he said.

“The question should not be whether to have a setback requirement. The issue should be how much,” Muratsuchi said. “I think of regardless of how much we settle upon, the evidence is crystal clear that we do need to have some setback to protect our most vulnerable communities.”

quote:

California Politicians Hiked Gas Tax, Now Demand Investigation Into State's $4 Per Gallon Gas Prices

What could possibly be increasing California's gas prices?

Be careful what you ask, Guv'nor!



As lieutenant governor, Gavin Newsom supported a 2017 bill increasing the state's gas taxes. When running for governor in 2018, he opposed a ballot initiative that would have repealed that same increase. It's 2019, and Newson, now the state's governor, is demanding an investigation into why the state's gas prices are so high ....

Oh Well

But don't ask me what I think of you...
I might not give the answer that you want me to

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:
As lieutenant governor, Gavin Newsom supported a 2017 bill increasing the state's gas taxes. When running for governor in 2018, he opposed a ballot initiative that would have repealed that same increase.

And the CA citizens voted no on Prop 6 last year, a measure to repeal the recent gas taxes. Amazing.

it would be great if the refiners limited gas supplies to California - cut say 25% out of the shipments

until the government tells the envirowhackos to cease and desist all of their activities

make them feel the heat, drive the price to $12 a gallon and lets see how many people like being democrats

I've worked with oil and gas in CA for the past 18 years. It amazes me at the ignorance by the general public and state officials.

If you were to shut off CA oil production overnight, it would do jack squat to gasoline usage. We'd simply import crude from Alaska, Venezuela, Middle East and refine the crude. The state consumes 80 million gallons PER DAY of gasoline, diesel, and JetA. How would you replace that amount of energy overnight? Gasoline consumption isn't going anywhere in CA. If you confiscated 26 million ICE-driven cars today, owners couldn't replace them fast enough. Car manufacturers couldn't build hybrids fast enough. All prices would skyrocket, jobs would suffer, and general misery would ensue.

It's like watching an epic epoch of Atlas Shrugged...

Sooner or later the Pols., will use this as a reason to blame the Oil Companies instead and not all the taxes and special blends the Gov. has added over the passed decades. In other words CYA.