California drivers aren’t imagining it. They’re being deliberately squeezed.
While the national average hovers around $2.92 a gallon, Californians are staring down $4.58 — after a 40-cent jump in just two weeks. And instead of fixing the obvious supply mess, Governor Gavin Newsom and Sacramento’s political class are doubling down on policies that punish drivers and choke in-state energy production.
If this feels like a war on your ability to travel freely, that’s because it is.
The Refinery Shutdown Spiral
California didn’t “accidentally” end up here.
Refineries have been closing or scaling back under relentless regulatory pressure. Phillips 66 began winding down its Los Angeles refinery. Valero Energy closed its Benicia facility, a key supplier to Travis Air Force Base.
What remains? A fragile handful of refineries, including facilities operated by Chevron, PBF Energy, and Marathon Petroleum.
That’s it. Six operating refineries serve nearly 40 million people in the nation’s most car-dependent state.
And instead of making it easier to produce fuel locally, Sacramento has flirted with suing oil companies, penalizing “excessive profits,” and even pondering state ownership of refineries.
You don’t need an economics degree to know what happens next: supply drops, complexity rises, prices spike.
The 4,000-Mile Detour Nobody Asked For
Here’s where it gets absurd.
According to Bloomberg reporting, gasoline refined on the U.S. Gulf Coast is being shipped out of the country to the Bahamas, and then sent thousands of miles back to California.
Let that sink in.
Fuel travels 1,100 to 1,300 nautical miles to the Bahamas. Then another 4,000 to 4,500 nautical miles to the West Coast. Many shipments pass through the Panama Canal, adding transit fees, delays, and geopolitical risk.
Three weeks on the water. Extra handling. Extra insurance. Extra cost.
Why? Because California lacks interstate pipelines and has helped create a refinery shortage so severe that importing fuel on a global scavenger hunt now makes “market sense.”
This is not an environmental virtue. It’s logistical madness.
The Jones Act Loophole And The Cost Of Ideology
The workaround exists partly because of a century-old maritime rule that requires U.S.-built, U.S.-crewed vessels for domestic shipping. Experts like Martin Davies of Tulane University have noted that those vessels are both limited and expensive.
Analysts at GasBuddy estimate refinery closures alone could add 5 to 15 cents per gallon. Data from Vortexa show California imported more gasoline in November than ever before, with over 40% coming from the Bahamas.
This is what happens when ideology outruns infrastructure.
California politicians talk about climate leadership while forcing fuel to crisscross oceans on oil-powered tankers. They rail against “Big Oil” while making consumers dependent on imports from halfway around the globe.
If the goal was affordability and reliability, you’d expand in-state refining capacity, streamline regulations, and ensure stable pipeline access. Instead, the state has created a boutique fuel market so isolated and rigid that it collapses at the first refinery hiccup.
They Don’t Hate Gas — They Hate Cars
Look at the pattern.
High-density housing mandates. Relentless investment in mass transit. Restrictions on internal combustion engines. Regulatory hostility toward highways and suburban expansion. The multi-billion-dollar train to nowhere.
This isn’t just about oil companies. It’s about reshaping how people live.
Cars represent autonomy. Roads represent freedom of movement. Affordable fuel represents independence from centralized systems.
When gasoline becomes a luxury good, behavior changes. Commuting changes. Housing patterns change. Dependence on state-designed transit systems increases.
Whether by design or indifference, the result is the same: working families pay more while political leaders posture about climate virtue.
Bottom Line
California is importing gasoline on a 4,000-mile ocean detour while sitting on domestic supply routes that could be expanded and stabilized. Prices are soaring. Refineries are closing. Complexity is multiplying.
Drivers aren’t the problem. Policy is.
Until Sacramento stops undermining its own energy infrastructure, Californians will keep paying the price — one gallon at a time.
We are being screwed.
— Steve
