Today, Californians are paying nearly $2 more per gallon for gasoline than the national average, and the gap is growing. When gas prices rise, the cost of everything rises. Groceries. Utilities. Getting to work. For families already stretched thin, the pressure is becoming unbearable.

This didn’t happen overnight, and it was avoidable.

California’s high gas prices are the result of years of policy decisions that have made our energy market more expensive, more fragile, and more dependent on forces outside our control.

Our policies have reduced in-state oil production and refining capacity while demand remains high. Not long ago, California had more than 40 refineries. Today, only a fraction remain, and more are at risk. We now import roughly 70% of the crude oil we refine, and increasingly, the gasoline we use.

That’s not a transition. That’s outsourcing.

And it comes with consequences. When we limit supply here at home and rely on foreign imports, we expose Californians to global instability — wars, shipping disruptions, and market volatility that we cannot control.

I’ve been sounding the alarm on this since I first came to........

© Santa Clarita Valley Signal