There are too few refineries to turn oil into gasoline and diesel in California. That shortage cannot be fixed overnight. No new refineries will be built. At best it takes ten years to get all the approvals to construct an ugly edifice and get a refinery running. And California is trying to make gasoline obsolete by its residents buying electric cars. Once Californias can putt-putt around in golf cart like vehicles, everyone will be happy because NO GASOLINE, NO OIL.
So no one’s going to pay billions of dollars to build a refinery.

Gasoline prices have risen (almost 25 percent) at the end of the summer driving season. Why? The explanation is every refinery has maintenance problems and is changing to the winter blend. Of course, refineries have had to change to winter blends for 30 years, but they have never had a collective maintenance melt down in late August/September, and prices rise.

Oh why, oh why, oh why did rising prices happen this year, 2022. The best answer is that California was dumb enough to announce in May/June 2022 that it was giving every California driver a rebate check, to pay for increased gasoline costs. Californians were assured of having cash in their pockets during the fall of 2022. Now the beneficiaries of California’s largess are the oil companies/refineries who have created the shortage of gasoline (based upon the so-called maintenance issue). The oil companies owning refineries have already gotten the rebate money from consumers who are waiting for rebate checks.

The refiners are laughing. That money donation is water under the bridge, OR can attorneys in California do something about it?