I just learned another reason the price of California gasoline is the highest in the country, the workers at the Chevron refinery went on strike last month. Seems that after all these decades of business, they feel the refinery isn't a safe place to work

workers voted down Chevron’s most recent contract offer and the company refused to return to the bargaining table, the United Steelworkers union said.

Chevron said in a statement Sunday night that it has negotiated with the union for months and believes a contract offered by the company was fair and addressed union concerns.

The company offered a 2.5% pay increase, but the union had asked for 5% to keep up with inflation and cost of living in the Bay Area, White said.  (could that be due to the high cost of gas?) 

“It’s rough for the blue-collar worker in the Bay Area, and we asked for a 5% bump to help us out a little bit with our medical at Kaiser, which went up 23% last year,” White said.

https://ktla.com/news/california/workers-go-on-strike-at-california-refinery-owned-by-chevron/

So there you have it... rising costs of living, in the San Francisco bay area... duh, result in people making gas to ask for a raise, to keep up with the rising cost of healthcare and .... gas to get to work