Susan Shelley: Who pays for California’s war on drivers? You do.

If you’ve hesitated to buy an electric car because it’s typically easier to find a gas station than a charging station, California has a solution for you.

Fewer gas stations. And higher gas prices.

You may see a number of gas stations closing down in 2026 due to Senate Bill 445, which requires the owners of single-walled underground storage tanks containing hazardous substances – gasoline, for instance – to permanently close or replace them. The deadline is this Wednesday, December 31.

Back when SB 445 was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2014, the deadline date at the end of 2025 probably seemed so far away that it couldn’t possibly cause any political damage to the politicians who approved it. Now that it’s here, all the current politicians can answer constituents’ questions about local gas stations closing by solemnly pointing to the law and saying they didn’t do it. See how this works?

Whether gas stations comply or close, the regulation’s effect on California gas prices is to push them higher, either from reduced competition or higher costs passed through to customers.

Something similar is currently happening with local trash pick-up fees. A law aimed at keeping organic waste out of landfills was enacted ten years ago and has just taken effect. Now every city has additional costs for separate curbside containers and more expensive trash processing, costs passed on in higher sanitation fees to city residents and businesses. Take it up with the former governor.

The current governor, however, is fully to blame for oil refineries closing in California. Phillips 66 is closing its Los Angeles refinery by the end of the year, and a Valero refinery in Benicia is set to shut down in April. These closures are expected to push gas prices up to even more painful levels.

One reason this is happening is that Gov. Gavin Newsom called two special sessions of the legislature to pass laws with the stated purpose of cracking down on oil companies for the crime of, well, there actually was no crime. Just the crackdown.

The first special session, in 2023, produced Senate Bill X1-2, the “California Gas Price Gouging and Transparency Law.” It set up the “Division of Petroleum Market Oversight” as an independent division of the California Energy Commission. The DPMO was given a mandate to protect the consumers of transportation fuels through “market oversight, investigations, economic analysis and policy recommendations,” as described in the division’s first annual report, released in October.

Then in 2024, needing more political cover for the anger over high gasoline prices in California, Newsom called another special session to crack down on oil companies. This one produced Assembly Bill X2-1, the “Reducing Gasoline Price Risks Law.”

SB X1-2 authorized the California Energy Commission to set a maximum profit margin for gasoline refining and to impose penalties for “excess profits.” It demanded new data collection to spot “market manipulation,” and it required an assessment of methods to ensure a reliable fuel supply while the state “transitions” away from petroleum.

AB X2-1 put the California Energy Commission in charge of setting and enforcing minimum fuel inventory levels. It also directed the CEC to figure out how much more crude oil California would need to import to meet its energy needs, and to ensure that the state’s ports and marine infrastructure are ready to handle it. The “transition” isn’t close to happening. The DPMO reports that there are 28 million gasoline-powered vehicles in California, including hybrids, and 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles.

This is one more example of how the state’s blithering idiocy in energy policy is raising prices in California. Who pays for upgrading ports and marine infrastructure to handle more oil imports coming in on tankers? Who pays the higher cost of imported oil? Who pays the oil companies to report data and retain attorneys to ensure compliance with all the “crackdowns” that California politicians are imposing to prevent the voters from blaming them when the mail ballots arrive?

The answer is, you pay for it, either as a consumer, a ratepayer or a taxpayer. The state government is causing these higher costs with performative and unnecessary regulations.

The 2024 annual report released by the Division of Petroleum Market Oversight in October says the DPMO is staffed with “experienced prosecutors and enforcement attorneys” as well as “three Ph.D. economists and a senior data scientist.” It is engaged in “focused investigative work” and enforcement of “reporting requirements under state law.”

So what did they find? No crime at all. The crime is asking businesses to operate under these conditions, with the California government acting like a cross between Captain Ahab and the villain in a regional theater production of Les Misérables. No surprise that two more refineries are closing.

The DPMO report makes a big deal out of what it calls a “mystery surcharge” that it says has raised gas prices in California by an average of $0.41 per gallon between 2015 and 2024. But then it admits that the long-declining number of California refineries has led to a concentration of market power that doesn’t exist in other states. This, it says, can explain price increases. It also admits that “refiners’ operating expenses” in California are “higher than in the rest of the U.S., in part because of higher labor and energy costs.”

The report even lists the state policies that raise energy costs: “California’s gasoline excise tax, gasoline blend standards, Low Carbon Fuel Standard” and the “Cap-and-Invest (formerly Cap-and-Trade) Program.” But there’s no recommendation to review these and see if they’re worth what they cost. It’s easier to blame oil companies.

The DPMO’s crackdown team found no market manipulation or price gouging. The 62-page report concludes with this recommendation: “DPMO continues to encourage all Californians to shop around for gasoline.”

More and more Californians are now shopping for it in another state.

Write Susan@SusanShelley.com and follow her on X @Susan_Shelley