California repeatedly warned about fragile gas supply, spiking prices. But fixes never came

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LATimes

But despite multiple reports and special committees, California has struggled to find solutions as it tries to rapidly reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.

Motorists got a reminder of this in recent weeks as prices hit record levels in an increasingly fragile gasoline market, after almost half the state’s refineries experienced recent or ongoing outages, pushing the supply of West Coast gasoline to its lowest level in a decade.

“Do I have the new infrastructure fast enough before I retire the old infrastructure, and what happens if you’re in the middle?” said Amy Myers Jaffe, the managing director of Tufts University Climate Policy Lab and a former executive director for energy and sustainability at UC Davis.

“The way we’re doing it now is you just let the fuel costs go up and then we leave poor people with no ability to get anywhere… . And then [California leaders] grandstand against the oil companies — that’s not a solution.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision last week to switch early to the state’s easier and cheaper winter blend of fuel has been credited for minor relief at the pump. But experts say that move alone does little to remedy a situation that keeps reaching crisis levels. The average price for a gallon of gasoline remains well above $6 in California, about 70% higher than the national average, according to the American Automobile Assn.