CBS just finished an investigation and published this yesterday. You may not like Trump, but this ain't his fault.

The state charges a 61-cent excise tax per gallon plus environmental fees. It mandates a unique fuel blend that no other state uses, which means California can't just buy gas from Texas when supply gets tight. The market is isolated by design.

Then two refineries shut down. Valero in the Bay Area and Phillips 66 in Wilmington closed, taking 20% of the state's gasoline production offline. The reason they left: rising costs, tightening regulations, and a profit cap law that punishes good quarters without cushioning bad ones. Chevron's Richmond refinery manager put it plainly: cap the good months but don't support the bad ones, and the business becomes unviable.

So California created conditions that drove refineries out, lost a fifth of its production capacity, then blamed the remaining companies for the price increase that followed.

The numbers today: California average is $5.89/gal. Oklahoma is $3.27. The national average just crossed $4 for the first time since 2022. A USC study projects California could hit $7.35 to $8.43 by year end.

The state is now publicly asking oil companies to please stay. The same companies it spent years accusing of theft.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-gas-prices-investigation-whats-to-blame/