Originally Posted by
Dan Druff
Gas prices are a bit complicated to understand, because there is so much variance within the US, which occurs for a variety of reasons:
- State taxes
- Local taxes
- State environmental requirements
- Remoteness (difficulty to receive supply)
- Opportunistic gouging
The federal government does indeed have some influence on the prices, but only the base prices, and only to a certain extent. Of course, foreign oil prices are what drive a lot of the prices up and down.
However, that's not to let states like California off the hook. They've got a terrible 1-2 punch of high state/local taxes AND crippling environmental regulations which cause higher production costs (which is then passed onto consumers).
A big problem is that California believes it can extract tons of extra money out of gas tax when prices are low, and then the state becomes addicted to the money and can't remove the tax when prices get high. So we end up with situations like right now.
You also shouldn't be too worried by shock pictures of super high prices, as these tend to be at certain outlier stations which set prices outrageously high because people will still pay it. This includes remote or semi-remote tourist destinations, wealthy neighborhoods where the clientele doesn't care that much, etc.
I recommend getting the GasBuddy app, and you can see prices in your area, and find the best stations to frequent.