To help get everyone in the mood for this leap year’s special present–one extra Monday in the year–California gas prices shot up on Friday as “refineries switch from the winter blend of fuel to the more expensive state-mandated summer blend.” So the weekend started badly and ended worse.
They get you coming and going.
Summer blend gas–gas blended to evaporate less at higher temperatures–is a national requirement, but California requires that retailers start selling summer blend gas earlier than the rest of the country.
The LA Times also notes that “California’s gasoline prices typically run higher than the rest of the nation because of the costs related to producing the state’s less-polluting gasoline.” In 2012, when gas in California was selling for well over $4/gallon when the nationwide average was ~$3.80, US News reported that “California’s High Gas Prices Are Self Inflicted.” Not only does California impose very high taxes on gasoline, it also requires that gas sold in the state meet more stringent standards than required in the rest of the country. As a result, the only gas one can buy in California is California gas, whereas the rest of the country enjoys a more-or-less national market, in which gas produced in one state can be shipped to another to meet rising demand.
That’s why, today, the national average price for a gallon of gas is $1.75, but in California, it’s $2.40.
I raise all this because I think it stinks, and it stinks because California is imposing the costs of its environmentalism most heavily on the poor. Poorer people who move away from increasingly costly city centres will drive further to work, rather than being able to walk or take light-rail or the subway. That’s certainly the case in San Francisco, where increasing rents have driven families out of the city, out of the east bay, and into places like Dublin, Pleasanton, and other–more affordable–towns that are 40 miles are more from the city.
Poorer people are more likely to work in jobs that require driving as part of the job itself–self-employed landscapers, tradespeople, salespeople, and so on might drive a hundred or so miles in a single day’s work.
Poorer people can less afford new cars, and will continue to drive older vehicles that get poorer gas mileage. Nor will their old vehicles qualify for California’s “Clean Air Vehicle” stickers for hybrid and electric vehicles, leaving those same poor people stuck in traffic while wealthier Californians whiz by in HOV lanes that poor people disproportionately pay for simply by dint of using more gasoline.
These costs aren’t trivial, either. A 40 mile commute from Pleasanton to San Francisco turns into 400 miles a week. If you’re driving your new $25k Prius, getting ~50 miles per gallon, your weekly commute just set you back $19.20. If you’re driving your 1992 Ford Taurus, that got something like 24mpg combined when it was new, and probably gets no better than 20mpg now, that same weekly commute just cost you $48.
Over the course of a 50 week work year, the person in the Taurus will pay $1440 more at today’s gas prices. Back when gas was $4 a gallon? $2400 more per year.
Now consider that for a person who’s not earning enough to buy a new Prius, let alone a Tesla or a BMW i3, the cost of gas likely represents proportionally more of her salary than it does for someone wealthier. So not only are they paying proportionally more of their salary for gas, but they are also paying absolutely more for gas, also.
Meanwhile, rich folks in California are likely to pay less and less of their salary for gas while they live closer to work, purchase newer and more efficient cars, and enjoy the perks of “environmentally friendly” highway design that rewards their automotive profligacy. If you’re rich enough to afford them, California’s environmental policies are probably a great benefit of living here to you. If you’re poor enough to have to pay for them, you’re less likely to enjoy those benefits at all.
They get you coming and going.
You make a legitimate point, Mr. Sculptor, but if you take a longer view, California’s anti-pollution standards help EVERYBODY live healthier lives – not just one income bracket. We have a teacher at our school in the Los Angeles metropolis who relies purely on bike and public transportation. I have long said that if America would quadruple the cost of gasoline to what an average price-per-liter is anywhere in Europe, we would have more efficient public transport.
We might have more efficient public transportation, but in the meanwhile we’d have a lot of poor people suffering tremendous costs. California’s high gas prices are incredibly regressive, and the people who actually pay a significant portion of their income just to get to work may not think that a healthier life some time in the future is worth a terrible life right now.
You may think that high–and yet higher–gas prices are justified, but I think intellectual honesty and your own compassion for the less fortunate compel you to recognise that those prices will cause the poor to suffer greatly.