Californians have paid $5.3 billion extra for their gasoline due to the higher amount Californians are charged than the rest of the nation since February.
The analysis shows Californians paid $900 million more for their gasoline than typical Americans in August alone.
"The historic Golden State gouge continues to grow and drivers continue to pump up record profits for California refiners that are shorting the market through exports and outages," said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog. "California oil refiners profiteering has cost each California driver $220 since February."
Persistent low gasoline inventories maintained by the state's largest refiners has led to a record price spike that saw Californian's paying as much as $1.30 more than the national average this Spring. Refiners in the state continue to export refined products from California, despite the continuing shortage. The supply problems worsened since refinery outages began in February. They were exacerbated by record exports in December of 2014, when refiners exported more gasoline from the West Coast to foreign nations than ever in history.
Consumer Watchdog's review of industry data also shows that during the last week six tankers are or have loaded up to 2 days of Californians' petroleum supplies at California refineries for foreign export.
The capacity of the ships, which are carrying California gasoline, totals over 80 million gallons, which is two days of the state's fragile gasoline supply.
The ships, which fly flags from Malta, the Bahamas, Singapore, China, and Denmark, are the latest fleet to export gas.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/labor-day-ca-gouging-gap-at-pump-rises-to-53-billion-since-february-oil-refiners-exporting-amid-gasoline-supply-shortage-says-consumer-watchdog-2015-09-03
Well......It goes a bit deeper than The Evil Oil Companies.
ReplyDeleteThe best way to run a refinery, any refinery, is to run it at close to maximum capacity. That keeps the cost per unit (in this case gallons) down, and keeps the refinery running along smoothly.
Kalifornia requires "special" gasoline, which because of the limited (and captive) market, costs more to refine. The refineries wouldn't ship this blend out of state because they'd lose money on it, and it wouldn't be suitable for use in other climates.
They might be "guilty" of holding back production, but there's a reason for that, too.
Gasoline just doesn't store very well, so they can't produce huge quantities of it and store it someplace, as it will go stale.
So, they have to make a business decision on how to allocate what amount of "Kalifornia" gasoline to produce, and balance that against what their total production capacity is. They don't have a switch in the control room that says "Kalifornia Gas/49 state Gas" that they can arbitrarily flip back and forth. It takes time to switch a refinery over from product "A" to product "B", even if it's just changing what percentage of the same component parts go into the final blend delivered.
"Unscheduled shutdowns" are another matter. Something could have broken, worn out, or failed, -OR- it might be doubletalk for "we're shutting down because we don't need to produce Kalifornia gas this month, and nobody has ordered non-Kalifornia gas".
It goes far deeper than "Evil Oil Companies Screwing Kalifornia Consumers Just For Fun and Profit", but you'll never convince most people of that.
And where, exactly, does the major portion of the cost of a gallon of gasoline go?
TAXES!
Not oil company profits, not the cost of production, not the cost of the raw materials.
It goes to TAXES, pure and simple.....
Allright, when you say the best way, you assume that the refineries are trying to accomplish something that is not in evidence. They are shipping gas out, they are artificially affecting the supply, by reducing the amount of gas on hand for California use.
DeleteCalifornia gas is simply a couple additives different for smog reasons, than the unleaded gas made everywhere else in the USA, and can be sold everywhere. It's of a slightly better pollution control mix, and therefore useful everywhere. No lesser smog pollution control gas can be used in California, and that is the bottleneck that is choking supply.
So, when you say the best way to run a refinery, you're not on the same page as the people running the company that operates the california refineries. They aren't trying to make the lest expensive fuel, they are trying very hard to make the most expensive fuel.
They are shipping it out and selling it out of state and out of country, they are causing "maintenance" problems. Not enough to close up the refineries, just enough to increase profits.
No oil corporation is getting less profits year to year, the opposite is the fact. Exxon has had the largest profits of any corporation on the planet for the past several years.
And keep in mind, California is the 7th largest economy on the globe. Not just in the USA, but of all countries, and it all runs on gas.
So, to sum up, I disagree with everything you've said.
It doesn't cost more to refine California gas, they don't have extra steps, they just dump in more toulene, or benzene, or ethanol.
That stuff costs a couple pennies per gallon of gas. It's not a refining process, it's a liquid dumped in.
Do you have any idea how long it takes for, as you said, "gas to go stale"? About 6 months. Gas, like any liquid stored in a container, stays pure, stays in it's original state unless things like humidity are added (not going to happen in a sealed tank) or pressure is released (ditto) and the evaporation will stop quite soon as the pressure temperature saturation of the air inside the tank is maxed out.
Then nothing happens. It stores just fine, they do make huge quantities, as evidenced by the 80 million gallons they just shipped out.
DeleteThe California tax on gas wasn't changed since the 2009 low oil cost per barrel of 38 dollars, and that was $1.97 a gallon. Now, at 40 a barrel last week, the same gas, with the same tax, cost $1.50 more.
the only things you've said that I agree with, are thing's I've already posted "California is woefully short of refining capacity, and the chances of any new refineries being built are extremely slim due to all the environmental requirements unique to California
And California is very short of places to store the finished product, and the chances of any new tank farms being built are exactly the same, and for the same reasons, as for any new refineries being built."
Changing the formula a slight bit for Winter and Summer blends isn't a magic trick, nor reinventing the wheel. It's simple, only happens 2wice a year, and 2 times, by definition, isn't what you refer to as "changes several times a year to account for the climate".
You have your Death Valley and Mountain gas analogy backward. Vapor lock happens at high altitude, not lower, where there is higher air pressure, and more oxygen in the air.
People in California, and America, have been very well informed and educated on the reasons for the price of gas ever since 1990 and Gulf War one, when suddenly the damn price doubled. Then in 1999 it doubled again, and hasn't went back to a dollar a gallon since.
Obviously, you don't believe me, and everything I have written here, or posted on my blog, is something you refuse to believe about the price and process of gas manufacturing, oil refineries, and oil company gouging.