By Jasu Diaz —
Already with the highest per gallon gas ($4.85) in the nation, California faces price increases to $8 by late 2026. The Golden States is now only plated Golden.
J.D. Tuccille wrote that state policies make Californians “pay as if the place was the setting for a Mad Max movie.”
Thanks to the senseless pushes for “clean energy” and regulatory madness, refineries are shuttering plants, driving up prices due to demand higher than production.
The Phillips 66’s Los Angeles refinery was scheduled to close Oct. 2025 and Valero’s Benicia refinery in April 2026. The two plants accounts for about 20% of California’s gasoline production. The companies blame “regulatory enforcement” and “long-term uncertainty” as reasons, including new inventory mandates under ABX2-1 (passed Oct. 2024).
If California can’t produce enough gasoline for its drivers, it will have import from other states, which adds transport costs on top of production.
Already, California drives prices up by requiring a higher quality gasoline (on par with Europe’s). It’s more costly to refine.
Then add on top of already expensive gasoline an excise tax of 59.6¢/gallon, a sales tax about 2.25%, and an underground storage fee 2¢/gallon. Now do you understand why California gas is already the costliest?
The national average per gallon in $3.02 for regular unleaded. Oklahoma has the cheapest at $2.47.
California politicians are more worried about climate change than how insane price increases will affect lower class and middle class drivers, who would pay on average $1,000 more a year just for gas, according to Professor Michael A. Mische of USC’s Marshall School of Business, who analyzed decades of data on refining, policy, consumption and supply trends.
Mische’s May study forecasted a 75% increase from early 2025 levels ($4.82/gallon baseline), pushing prices to $7.35–$8.43/gallon by the end of 2026.
What’s the State’s likely answer? Rebates for poorer for drivers. Typical: raise taxes to waste tons of it on bureaucracy returning a small fraction of it to the taxpayer.
A better solution would be to stop voting Democrat.
