The American Tea Man

Posted above is just one example of what is being seen across California as gas prices soar.  People have gone out in mass form to make sure that they get gas as most stations close and others run out.  And with the chance of prices getting higher, people want to fill up while the prices are still under $5.00 a gallon.

Due to stoppages at oil refineries in California many independent gas stations have had to shut down because they cannot make a profit with such high prices.

The following is information contained in an article put out by Breitbart.com -

Exxon‘s Torrance refinery lost power Oct. 1 and is only starting to recover now; Phillips 66 is trying to fix two of its California refineries this month; and Chevron shut down its pipeline of crude oil to its Northern California refineries last month.

Meanwhile, Costco is starting to shut its pumps down, Valero is terminating selling gas at its stations, and Exxon Mobil is rationing fuel.

Read the full article HERE.

Because of the mess going on with the oil refineries, gas prices shot up hugely just overnight.  They have been steadily going up since the mess started, and with the highest gas prices in the nation at $4.49 things were already bad.  The biggest hike hit on overnight as prices went up between 19 – 40 cents depending on where you are in California.  This has caused the state to jump ahead of Hawaii which has traditionally had the nations most expensive gas.

Examples of some of the jumps:

Ventura, CA. - Up 20 cents to $4.53

Los Angeles-Long Beach Area, CA. – Up 19 cents to $4.54

San Francisco, CA – New average $4.60

Some gas stations in the state are charging more than $5.00 a gallon.  A Low-P station in Calabasas charged $5.69 on Thursday.

In just one week prices have gone up 40 cents.  If this trend keeps up then California could see $5.00 a gallon become their new average.

As I mentioned above, many stations have decided to close down because they cannot handle the high gas prices, mainly independently owned stations.  Costco has even chosen to close down some of their station as a result.  I think if the prices continue to soar and stations close, we will see Californians going across state lines to get gas in Nevada, Oregon and Arizona.

This just adds on to the states list of growing troubles that includes a massive budget deficit and growing debt.

This is something to think about.  Here is a photo going around on Facebook comparing the gas crisis of today to the energy crisis of 1978 -

Maybe this crisis will end sooner than we think, or it may go on longer.  For the people in California they probably wanted this issue solved yesterday.

What I am wondering, is if this will have any impact on the presidential election coming up.  Will it help or hurt the two candidates?

Related articles

• Gas Prices Jump Overnight Again (huffingtonpost.com)
• Calif gas prices spike 8 cents a gallon overnight (cnsnews.com)