Why does California gas cost more?

I just found this:

Why California Gasoline Costs More

One of the most common questions we get in our office is: Why do Californians pay more for gasoline than anywhere else in the country.

Recently, the Orange County Business Council conducted a research study into this question and the findings were quite striking:

• Californians pay between five and fifteen cents per gallon extra due to increased fuel refining costs required by the special gasoline blends required by the California Air Resources Board.
• Because few refineries are equipped to make this special blend, availability is often limited and price is affected when these refineries break down or close for maintenance.
• State gas taxes, at 35.3 cents per gallon, are 43% higher than the national average. Only New York charges more.
• California is a “fuel island” with no pipelines linking us to domestic oil supplies. Thus, all crude oil must come here by tanker. We also have a limited capacity for storage, having lost six million barrels of storage capacity in the last 15 years.
• California has not opened a new gasoline refinery since 1969, and 20 refineries have closed since 1980. Thus our refineries are forced to become more efficient, but they have only increased their capacity by one half of one percent (0.5%) between 1995 and 2006. During this same period, fuel sales increased by 18%.

The report concludes: “Because unplanned outages and ‘shocks to the system’ will never go away, California’s current fuel standard differentiation puts the state in a continual risky, precarious position. Consequently, there will continue to be consumer outrage, media reports, and other negative ramifications over high and lengthy fuel price spikes unless there are constructive measures taken to address (these) policy impacts.”

To read this study you can go to:
http://www.fuelingcalifornia.org/docs/Fueling%20California%20FINAL%20RESEARCH%208.4.09.pdf

Those of us from California know there are similar answers for why we pay more for water, electricity, bread, milk, and nearly everything else.  We’re a state run amuck with burdensome regulations and taxes.

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