"Detailed the reasons" yet you list the prices, not those reasons....
What are the bullshit reasons?
The special "California only" blend of gas? As if other states are somehow different enough to warrant a radically different gasoline blend that costs $2.00 more than they use in other states?
I felt the most interest would be the price of gas in the individual states, not the reasons for the way-too-high prices in California.
But since you've asked, here's a summary of the reasons given in the article why gas prices are so much higher in California:
* The cost of crude oil is the biggest driver of gasoline prices, but that doesn’t explain the cost differential as you go over state borders
* Policy choices are the difference. In California, a long list of policy choices are contributing to the high price of gasoline. Even the worldwide price of crude oil is affected by California policy choices.
* The decisions to cut back oil production and import oil from other countries have an effect on supply and demand. In 1986,California production peaked at 402.23 million barrels of oil. That was 59.4% of all the oil that went to California refineries. That same year, foreign imports of oil to California totaled only 36.87 million barrels, just 5.5% of the oil refined in California. The rest came from Alaska. Last year, after decades of grinding the domestic oil and gas industry with restrictions and lectures, oil production in California was down to 136 million barrels, or 25.8%of the oil refined in the state. Another 80.25 million barrels came from Alaska, and 311.53 million barrels were imported from countries including Saudi Arabia and Iraq. That’s 59% of the oil refined in California coming into the state from foreign sources instead of local production. Even as recently as 2017,California’s local production provided 31.3% of the oil that went to California refineries. But there’s no sign that anyone in Sacramento would like to reverse the downward trend, so you can expect the grinding, the restrictions and the hypocritical lectures to continue.
* Other policy choices contribute to the high price of gasoline in California, like the 58 cents per gallon in state taxes, on top of federal taxes. The most recent legislation raising gas taxes in the state also included an annual inflation adjustment, so when prices go up and inflation goes up, drivers get slammed twice. California also requires refineries to buy permits for emitting greenhouse gases, part of a program run by the California Air Resources Board. This regulatory scheme adds varying amounts to the price of all energy in the state, and the money that’s paid for the permits goes into a fund in the state Treasury, just like a tax. Lawmakers decide how they’re going to spend the money, just like a tax. But the courts have said it’s not a tax. That worked out well for the California High-Speed Rail Authority. The ballot measure that authorized the initial debt financing for the project prohibited any tax increase or public subsidy, but the boondoggle caught a break with the court ruling, because it meant the money we’re paying in the price of gasoline and diesel for these permits could be used to build the bullet train. And that’s exactly what’s happening. Twenty-five percent of the revenue that goes into the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund is routed to the High-Speed Rail Authority to pay the high salaries of its executives, the paintings and animations used to show how great it’s going to be, and he cost of constructing the infrastructure on the route that is definitely not San Francisco to Los Angeles. Other factors, like smog-reduction regulations, also contribute to the cost.
