Mysterious gasoline “surcharge” grabs attention of California lawmakers
You go to the gas station to fill up, and pay up.
“It sucks. If you get out of California, just like the truck drivers, you can get it cheaper,” said driver, Danny Pettit.
“In our state everything is too high,” said driver, Marie Castillo.
According to AAA, California drivers pay more at the pump than drivers anywhere else in the country. University of California-Berkley, economist, Scott Borenstein, studied these high prices while on the states’ Petroleum Market Advisory Committee in 2017. Borenstein noticed a substantial gas price spike, starting back in 2015.
“If you look from 2000 to 2014, the average differential was just a couple pennies, and in no year was it more than 10 or 12 cents. In 2015 it skyrocketed,” said Borenstein.
Borenstein discovered what he called a mysterious gas “surcharge.” Drivers started paying 20 to 30 cents more, a gallon, starting in 2015.
This adds up to around $17 billion dollars in extra fees, with no clear reason behind the increase. Hartnell College economy professor, Tina Esparza-Luna, believes the reason for the increase is due to demand.
“The economy has been the best that we’ve seen in many years, in the last three years, so people want to do more stuff. They want to travel more places and that requires gas, especially here in California. There’s so many things to do where people can drive to their destination as opposed to flying, or taking a train, so it would make sense for people to be driving more. They’re gonna demand more gas for leisure purposes than they would’ve in 2016 or so,” said Esparza-Luna.
The California Assembly wants a clear answer. Just this week, nearly a dozen lawmakers, wrote a letter to the State Attorney General. This included two central coast assembly members, Mark Stone and Robert Rivas. They demanded that the unexplained gas “surcharge” be investigated.
Drivers said they hope the investigation results in lower prices. “We do wish gas prices were a little nicer, and a little more encouraging,” said driver, William Bell.
