Bay Area Media Group: Why is California Gas so Expensive?

In a recent article titled “California gas is ‘out of whack’ – nearly $2 more than national average. Who’s to blame?” published by Eliyahu Kamisher (email) and Scooty Nickerson (email) with Bay Area News Group, the authors, while being on target with some of their information, try to cast the blame away from the true cause. While anyone can speculate as to what could compel these authors to be disingenuous in their journalism, and we’ll let you come to whatever conclusion you draw, what you can not speculate about is math. We’ll get to that later. 

They start off by stating very accurately,

“California has long been known as the country’s priciest place to fill up your tank, but these days the Golden State is “completely out of whack.”

Then follow that by saying,

“gas prices plummeted around the nation in recent weeks, [but] California’s price at the pump has rebounded with a vengeance to an average of $5.58 a gallon.” 

Plummeted means to drop sharply and abruptly

Plummeted means to drop sharply and abruptly, and while the following graph shows a sharp drop after reaching the peak of Mount Gasoline, what the authors are failing to illustrate is how Gasoline prices were relatively stable from 2016 till late 2020.

Sometime around the beginning of 2021 California Gas Prices began to skyrocket into unprecedented values never before experienced by Americans, and Californian’s got the worst of it. Californian’s living in the Pacific NorthWest, even worse.

What could be to blame for this? What do our two favorite authors of the day have to say about paying $5.58 a gallon for gas?

“That’s $1.89 more than the national average.”

Fact this may be, this acceptable but not so perfect start to what could have been a golden article of journalist integrity and intellectual pragmatism immediately took a hard left turn into the sad land of purposeful propaganda. Unfortunately, the authors pivot from their logical and reasonable deductions, albeit with their own style and slight bias showing so far, to the following statement which made it crystal clear where they were going with this who’s to blame game.

Why is California Gas so Expensive??! Putin!

“While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drove prices higher around the world, California’s perplexing price swing is largely due to the local oil industry, experts say, which is putting the state on another planet when it comes to gas.”

Maybe we think about things too deeply? But, this single sentence both assumes California’s price swings are “perplexing” and in stark contrast they continue by saying the swings are “largely due to the local oil industry” which is provided by some unaimed “experts” which is “putting the state on another planet when it comes to gas.”

The stunning thing, given the “perplexity” of this situation in California, we discovered four paragraphs deeper into the article, the following paragraph, which seems to fit better directly after what we’ve covered above than after a bunch of leftist propaganda pointing the finger at anything but the real cause. Let’s see what you think:

“Much of California’s high gasoline costs are explainable. The state’s 54-cent gasoline excise tax is among the highest in the country — only Pennsylvania’s is higher. There are also stricter environmental regulations and special fuel blends that prevent rampant smog from accumulating in cities. Altogether these factors tack on roughly $1.20 to California’s gas prices.” emphasis added, your welcome. 🙂

Why is California Gas so Expensive? Trust the Math

So I ask again, Why is California Gas so expensive? Please understand that I am no mathematician, however it seems to this commoner that the $0.54-cent excise tax, coupled with stricter environmental regulations, as well as special fuel requirements levied by the State, altogether are the major factors Californians are dying at the pump, and Humboldt feels it worse of all.

Again, I do not consider myself a Sherlock Holmes of Humboldt County, and please correct me in the comments section if I am off base here, but last I checked… 

$1.89 – $1.20 = $0.69 cents.

Going on the notion the remainder of $0.69 is the factor of the cost somehow affected by California Oil Company shenanigans, this would only account for 36.5% of the $1.89 difference.

The overbearing government regulations in California coupled with the outrageous taxation on every gallon plus strict rules for special fuel additives altogether accounts for 63.5% of the difference between California gas prices, and that of the national average. 

Why is California Gas so expensive? Inflation isn’t helping

High gas prices sucks enough as it is, but coupled with rising energy costs across the board and inflation directly affecting the price of food, goods, and services American’s rely on to survive, a more pragmatic nuanced look into the situation is clearly called for. Why is California Gas so expensive? What factors and what players are to blame for this scenario we find ourselves in?

As we briefly touched on before, gas prices were relatively stable from 2016 to early 2021 and in contrast to the past two years, they were also very low in a historical context. Indeed, gas prices during this four year period hit lows not experienced since 2009, and not previously since 2004.

This had a direct effect on the wallet of every American because the overall cost of goods is tied directly to the fuel costs associated with distribution. Simply speaking, gas was cheap, diesel was cheap, so shipping was cheap, and the price of goods and services were lower on average compared to right now.

So what happened in 2021 that caused gas, and frankly energy in general, and seemingly the price of everything skyrocketed to unprecedented heights? 

Well, in 2021 the Biden Harris administration took over the reins of power and immediately went to work toward their goal of changing the very fabric of America, starting first with our then newly accomplished energy independence and surplus. 

Why is California Gas so expensive? Keystone Pipeline

• January 20, 2021: One of Biden’s first actions was to revoke approval for the Keystone XL pipeline and impose a moratorium on oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters. Roughly 25% of U.S. production comes from federal areas

Why is California Gas so expensive? Climate Hysteria

• February 26, 2021: Biden updates the “social cost of greenhouse gas emissions,” dramatically altering the way the U.S. government calculates the real-world costs of climate change. The administration plans to boost the figure it will use to assess greenhouse gas pollution’s damage inflicts on society to $51 per ton of carbon dioxide – a rate more than seven times higher than that used by former president Donald Trump. But experts say it could reach as high as $125 per ton

Why is California Gas so expensive? Taxing Oil to Death

• June 1, 2021:  Biden proposed eliminating a slew of tax benefits for oil, gas and coal producers in favor of electric vehicles and other low-carbon energy alternatives as part of his $6 trillion budget for the next fiscal year.

Why is California Gas so expensive? Begging to Import what HE shut down

• August 11, 2021: Biden calls on OPEC+ producers to increase supply to help curb rising oil prices, even though the U.S. is one of the three largest producers in the world and can deliver supply with a lower carbon footprint than most unregulated national oil companies in the cartel. He would do this several times in the months that followed, including after Russia’s February 24, 2022 invasion of Ukraine.–Foxnews

When gas and food prices are this high, even the most far left leaning media outlets must admit: Biden and the Democrats are in trouble this election season. In an article written by Stephen Collinson of CNN, titled “Biden is close to the point of no return with Americans on the economy” – Collinson points to a CNN poll that shows that only 23% of Americans think the economy is doing well…. Down from 37% in December.  

Now I don’t know who this 23% is, or what kind of blindfold they walk around in, but if 77% of Americans (and remember that is a CNN poll) see the economy for the dumpster fire it truly is – Republicans are in a great position this election season. Furthermore, Gavin Newsom, and the Democrats of California who support the very regulations and taxes that make up the overwhelming majority of the extra costs Californian’s pay at the pump will be a difficult topic to dance around at his upcoming debate with Governor hopeful Brian Dahle -R. 

Why is California Gas so expensive? Democrats

That’s good news for freedom. It is hopeful to see Americans understanding the situation and the cause – sending a message to this tyrannical administration that the American people are not going to tolerate this administration’s contempt for the American People. According to the same CNN poll – 94% of Republicans, 81% of Independents, and 54% of Democrats agree that this economy is failing. For opponents of their policy ideas, none of this is a surprise, beside the fact America is waking up!

The far left would like to convince Americans that Gas prices, Energy Costs, the price of food, and everything else tied to inflation is on the rise due to the war in the Ukraine and covid recovery. Americans are a lot smarter than democrats take for granted. Again, the same poll shows that 8 in 10 Americans say that our leftist government is not doing nearly enough to combat inflation than it could, and should!

With gas prices at an all-time high here in Humboldt we are seeing many people, previously left of center in there political affiliation, step up and want to get involved with Populist Patriots like the Authors at Lost Coast Populist to help get these stale, do-nothing-democrats and even worse, these trans-republicans, out of office. Trans-republicans are democrats who identify as republicans, but typically vote with Democrats, while lambasting about their patriotism and conservatism. We call them RINO’s (Republicans In Name Only) and understanding the difference between a RINO and a Lost Coast Populist is needed to understand politics at all in 2022. 

Why is California Gas so expensive? The Above, and its driving political action!

Across the nation local involvement is on the rise! This looks a bit different than the left of course – since Republicans are mostly contributing to society during the week – many are taking these efforts on after work and on weekends. Everyone who finds time for social media, a drink at the bar, or a walk-through Sequoia Park is starting to realize that they do have a little extra time to help!

If you want to Make Humboldt Great Again, I strongly encourage you to join our efforts! We need you to step up! Go to SaveHumboldtPAC.com to see how you can help! 

Got ask it a 1 more time tho…
Why is California Gas so expensive?