California closes two more gasoline refineries. Is this a ploy to eliminate ICE cars completely?

Photo above - Shots fired at a Shell station in 1996's "Romeo+Juliet" starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Clair Danes. Spoiler alert - high pump prices weren't reason why guns were drawn.

And just like that . . . California loses another 250 million barrels a day of gasoline capacity. About one quarter of the state’s daily demand. Valero and Phillips 66 are waving goodbye. See link below.

California famously has “the world’s 5th largest economy”. But as far as refinery capacity goes, it’s not even in the top 20. Places like Italy, Japan, South Korea and even Singapore have more refinery capacity. California has 12% of America’s population but just 6% of the refinery capacity. Is the long-range plan to buy gasoline from Texas and Mexico, or go straight to electricity?

California’s electricity prices are already more than double the rest of the USA. 33 cents per kWh. But that’s only if you’re lucky enough to live inland, away from places like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego. The closer you get those cities, the higher your electricity AND pump prices go.

I’ll avoid my usual rant about how AI systems, cloud servers, and data centers are sending our electric bills to the moon. I’ve done that several times this month already. Suffice it say that even with California's sky high gas prices, the cost of topping off your Tesla is sometimes more expensive (e-mpg) than putting the nozzle for 87 octane in your Toyota.

Will gas go to $8 a gallon, like the article predicts? Eventually, but I don’t think that will happen next year. If it does, California politicians are the dumbest in America. 2026 is election year. All the redistricting on earth might not be able to save elected officials if people can’t afford to get to work, and have to queue in line for a half hour to fill up. Remember how the 1970’s oil crisis ended Gerald Ford’s re-election hopes? Successor Jimmy Carter famously appeared on TV in a sweater, telling everyone to turn down their thermostats and go to permanent daylight savings time to save energy, and then HE was toast too.

I’m just sayin’ . . .



‘Cannot do business in the state of California’: Gas prices could hit $8/gallon as two refineries shut down