An unexplained gasoline surcharge is at least partly to blame for the difference in gas prices paid by Californians and residents of most other states.
The 25-30 cents more paid per gallon is unexplained by taxes and the state’s clean-burning gasoline.
It’s been dubbed the “mystery" gasoline surcharge by Severin Borenstein, faculty director at the Energy Institute at Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.
“And since 2015, since there was a refinery fire in California in 2015, our prices went up and never really came back down to where you’d expect them to be,” he told KCBS Radio.
In late 2019, the state’s Office of the Attorney General, at the instruction of the governor, launched an investigation and announced it was prosecuting some traders. Borenstein called this a fairly small action that doesn’t explain the gas prices.
“Of course, the attorney general’s office doesn’t announce when they’re opening investigations or when they’re closing them,” he noted. “So, we don’t know if they’re still looking into this.”
Borenstein said this mystery gasoline surcharge amounts to an extra $4 billion a year paid by California drivers, and it’s worth exploring further.
