Gas prices are soaring in California — again — thanks to a refinery fire that has choked supply, sending average prices to $5 per gallon, and even higher in the northern regions of the state.
Los Angeles’ KTLA-5 reported:
The average price of gas in California has skyrocketed in recent weeks, and is flirting with the dreaded $5 mark.
According to AAA, the average price of regular gas in California was $4.84 on Saturday. That number was up about 25 cents from last Saturday and 44 cents from one month ago.
The 44 cent rise in one month comes as refineries begin their transition to summer blends of fuel, AAA said. Other causes could be do to a major refinery being offline in Northern California and routine matinence [sic].
The San Francisco Chronicle reported:
The spike in prices is partly due to a fire that broke out at the Martinez PBF refinery on Feb. 1, forcing it offline indefinitely and significantly disrupting the state’s gasoline supply.
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The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is $3.17, roughly $1.65 lower than California’s average, which remains among the highest in the nation.
California routinely experiences price shocks due to laws and regulations that limit fossil fuel production and that restrict the fuel blends that refineries may produce, meaning that it is difficult to make up the shortfall by importing fuel from other states.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
