Red State California

[Valin]

Ricochet:

George Savage

10/5/12

 

California is now a red state, at least from the perspective of retail gasoline prices (heat map published by GasBuddy).

 

Why are prices here so much higher than elsewhere in the nation, including areas just over the border?

 

California has made itself a closed market for auto fuel by mandating expensive seasonal gasoline blends, purportedly to reduce air pollution--nobody ever compares the contribution made by special fuels to those from automotive clean air technology generally. Each seasonal changeover presents one more opportunity for a supply-disrupting refinery mishap and skyrocketing local prices, such as the current fiasco, which is sending local prices to $5 per gallon and climbing.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

Come to California, Romney

10/6/12

 

Mitt, I know my state isn't going to vote for you. It won't even be close. But for the rest of the country, I implore you to come. Come to the Shell station on Olympic and Fairfax in Los Angeles, where the current price for regular is $5.09 a gallon. And rising.

 

Thanks to the California Air Resources Board, our gasoline is required to have "higher standards" than the other 49 states, and can be refined at only a few facilities. One of those facilities caught fire weeks ago, and without a backup plan, now we get to enjoy $100 fillups for fullsized cars.

 

This is what the rest of the country will look like if the genius ideas of the ARB spread via an Obama EPA. This is the end result of environmental idiocy and energy regulation. I give it four days before Angelenos quit visting my big rock on Wilshire and start trying to refine tar out of the La Brea pits.