California has seventeen refineries, controlled by five companies, and yes, they are the problem.

In California, prices are a full $2.50 above the national average. Our taxes are 25 cents higher than the national average. Regulations for cleaner fuel and such add 60 to 70 cents.

The balance of the difference is a conglomerate of oil companies, like Chevron, charging higher prices in California because they can. And they're making record profits off of it. And yes, they've closed a bunch of the refineries, which they do every year around this time.

The only realistic way around the problem is to break our dependency on oil, which is why Democrats push to increase fuel efficiency standards and increase electric vehicle production.