The Globe talks with several gas station owners on the current high prices, how they think they should be lowered.
CA Globe –
By Evan Symon:
As gas prices continue to climb higher in California, lawmakers in the state have been looking at multiple short-term options to relieve Californians. Governor Gavin Newsom and some Democrats favor a gas tax holiday to delay the expected rise in the gas tax due in July, along with tax rebates for Californians to offset high prices. Republicans, along with a handful of Democrats, are more in favor of suspending the gas tax for between six months to a year, with lost tax revenue of $6 billion to be made up by tapping into the state’s surplus that could be as high as $60 billion. Other Democrats are skittish of both plans and simply want to continue with the longer-term solution of electric car proliferation and renewable energy production replacing fossil fuels in the next few decades.
Lawmakers, as well as oil companies, state agencies, federal agencies, and others keep looking for solutions. Some solutions include tapping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or more radical options harken back to the days of the OPEC oil embargo in the 1970’s.
The Globe talked with those on the other end of the situation, gas station owners and managers, about what the situation is there and what they think can be done.
“I would honestly charge less if I could,” said Alan Sutton, a Southern Californian gas station owner, to the Globe on Thursday. “But the price of gas is just so much tied in with crude oil, plus our margins are so thin. We make a penny or two on a gallon of gas after you factor in paying employees, rent, building upkeep, and everything. It’s very low. We take the price down even a penny per gallon and we would find ourselves in a bad financial place.”
Another gas station owner in Los Angeles, Rodrigo Ortiz, agreed. “We don’t get a call from Chevron or 66 or whatever headquarters each day telling us to charge more. The price is the price we buy it for and we add on a bit, but you know, we have to pay the workers here and buy new equipment too.” more
It’s sounding like they’re going to suspend the gas tax. Or at least a good portion of it. If you hang around the pumps for an extended period of time you can hear “Fuck Joe Biden” often. With panicked voices. I always want to ask them who they voted for.
Tax holiday, just about meaningless. Who’d they vote for, they know exactly who they voted for & will do it again.
Have gasoline tanker rigs started hiring shotgun-toting guards yet?
Tax holiday or rebates rewards those who never paid the gas tax in the first place (the ones driving electric cars or taking the bus). Typical government inefficiency–take money from Peter and then give it to Paul and Jane (after taking the government’s cut, of course).
An opinion piece in my local rag called the Newsom gas tax rebate a bad idea and provided us with another glimpse into the mindset of the California progressive;
“Higher prices at the pump encourage people to drive less and buy more electric and fuel-efficient cars. Discouraging consumption of fossil fuels and reducing greenhouse gas emissions should remain one of the state’s highest priorities. The price we pay for the impact of climate change on California is much higher than the increased costs at service stations.”
There you go, higher gas prices are necessary to force the consumer off fossil fuels. And the dumb-ass California prog, although grousing under his breath suffering the pain at the pumps, will get the warm fuzzies over his commitment to saving the planet and ushering in a new world of renewables.
Aside from these station owners suggestion of lowering the California gas tax, most of their suggestions sound as stupid as the voters who voted for the current public officials in the first place.
Didn’t read one person say how about we restart using our own fucking oil by allowing drilling, opening pipelines and canning the clean energy bullshit.
Wait until the ghetto blacks start looting gas tankers. One of them will be stupid enough to light a cigarette while doing so. Should be a hoot.
Prop me up beside the gas pump if I die
Lord, I want to go to heaven, but I don’t want to go tonight
Fill my boots up with sand, put a cigarette in my hand
Prop me up beside the gas pump if I die
Long time IOTW FanBoy. Can someone explain to me the spam thing to me? Talk slow, like I’m 5. I get the “all it takes is one fool in a zillion to respond to make a profit” thing. I get that it is bots, but doesn’t someone, somewhere, presumably paid, have to gather up screen IDs, avatars, etc. And why waste time posting on this site in particular. Not enough idiots here, whilst there are much more fertile fields
There ought to be a law!
I’m with MMinWA.
Easy peasy solution for reducing gas prices? F**k the FedGov “mandates” and “EOs” and “(not-so)Green Energy”. Get back to drilling, pumping and refining, like Montana.
Somehow I visualize evets facial expression when he looks at IOTW posts like the looks my dog gives me when I show him a magic trick. Comprehension is a higher order function for most two year olds…
The idiots think you can snap your fingers and- voila- we have an all electric car market. People can’t afford it and they don’t have the infrastructure for it. How in hell do these dorks feed and bathe themselves? They don’t have the mental capacity for anything else.
I read somewhere there’s a group registering voters at the gas stations, thought it was a brilliant idea.
On a related note, I hope the eighty-bajillionty people who voted for Biden experience extreme buyer’s remorse every time they fill their tank.
I live near 2 Indian casinos and both have gas stations, Smoke shops, and now a weed dispensary. My point is, they don’t pay CA tax on gas and it’s passed on to the consumer. Gas at the casino today was $4.99/gal regular. I didn’t pay attention to diesel prices, but truckers are in gassing up constantly, casinos are the cheapest around in CA..