Sacramento, CA— At today’s business meeting of the California Energy Commission (CEC), advocates expressed outrage at the oil industry’s stonewalling of reform and the findings of the 2024 annual report on gasoline market conditionsthat Californians have overpaid $59 billion at the pump over the last decade. Public interest advocates urged the CEC to deliver a minimum inventory rule ASAP and called the decision at the gubernatorial and regulatory level to set aside a price-gouging penalty for this behavior misguided.
“The oil industry is soley motivated by their own profits and therefore do not have the needs of Californians in mind, so they are not negotiating in good faith, and they have no incentive while ratcheting down their own operations to phase out fossil fuel use,” said Ilonka Zlatar, an organizer for Oil & Gas Network. She supports enacting a minimum inventory rule for an oligopoly of refiners controlling nearly the entire gasoline market in California and reconsideration of a price-gouging penalty.
“An overcharge of $59 billion dollars amounts to almost $1,500 for every man, woman and child in California and that’s crazy,” she said.
Other advocates for organizations, including the Center for Biological Diversity, The Climate Center, and Union of Concerned Scientists, echoed many of the same points.
The Division of Petroleum Oversight reiterated findings it had released in October from its 2024 annual report reviewing gasoline market conditions and providing California gas price analysis. Varsha Sarveshwar, Deputy Director for Policy at the Division of Petroleum Market Oversight at the CEC, said that Californians had overpaid for gas at the pump, costing consumers a cumulative $59 billion over the last decade.
“Retail prices for branded gasoline are on a significant upswing from the rest of the U.S.,” she said. “Between 2015 and 2025, the difference between the average branded and unbranded prices in California …have gone from about 20 cents per gallon to 31 cents per gallon and that is just the average.” Consumers often see an even bigger difference, she added. “In contrast, during the same period, the difference between branded and unbranded prices in the rest of the U.S. was virtually unchanged at 7 to 8 cents per gallon.”
The October report also found refining margins at branded gasoline stations were much greater than at unbranded stations over the last decade – 75 cents per gallon vs 41 cents per gallon. This shows vertically integrated refiners, such as Chevron and Marathon, have used their market power to jack up rates at branded stations. Four refiners will soon control 98 percent of California’s refining market, the most consolidated market in the US.
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