March 30, 2005
One more reason to flee
I filled up my gas tank this morning, and ended up paying $44. Gas is sitting at $2.50 a gallon for the ‘cheap’ stuff in Newport Beach, and I was getting close to empty. A complete refill would have probably pushed almost to $50. I hadn’t thought about it specifically this morning, but I am certainly looking forward to a nice reduction in fuel prices when I head back east.
Then, I read over at Quincy’s site this morning an explanation of why we Californians are in this predicament. The first problem is our boutique gasoline:
The real problem is that California is a closed gas market. Because of environmentalists, it is illegal to import the nationwide blend of gas, known as Federal Reformulated Gas, or FRG. Instead, Californians are forced to deal with whatever amount of California Reformulated Gas, or CRG, that the refineries feel like producing.
The first problem here is that the refineries here in California, which theoretically have enough capacity to keep the state awash in CRG use their excess capacity to produce FRG, which can then be sold to the other 49 states. Why would they do this? So they can make more money. It is not in their interest to flood California’s gas market, nor is it in their interest to let their excess capacity sit idle, so they use that capacity to make another profitable product.
Of course, that wouldn’t be that big of a problem, if someone could prove that CRG is actually more environmentally friendly than FRG. While I don’t necessarily believe that legislation and coercion is the best way to protect the environment, I haven’t studied the issue enough to have come up with a better solution. And considering air quality here in Southern California (another nail in the coffin of why I’m leaving), I can understand that something needs to be done. But this proves once again that the worst actor in most situations is the government:
Oh, but that’s not all. Do you remember the whole underground tank bugaboo? The reason they started suspecting leaking tanks was because MTBE was turning up in ground water. MTBE is dangerous stuff. When it’s being transported to a refinery, it has to be treated as a hazardous material. It’s a carcinogen. Worst of all, it leeches into water very quickly.
So, we’ve been paying 50 cents more a gallon for what? No improvement in air quality and poisoned ground water. Californians have shown themselves to be a powerful bunch when angered. Well, we should be angry about this, damn it! We have been fleeced for billions of dollars over the last 9 years. Now that gas prices are hovering around $2.50 a gallon, we should say we aren’t going to take it anymore. We can’t afford to take it anymore.
So, we’re paying higher prices while damaging the environment? Sounds wonderful. These simple truths should be enough to get someone to realize that the environmentalists were wrong on this, and we should go back to FRG. But, the environmentalists love the fact that gas is so expensive, because they think it means that we’ll stop driving so much, and thus they won’t admit one shred of fallibility here.
I suggest you run over to Quincy’s site and read the whole thing. He is confident that people can actually force some change here in the People’s Republic of California. I’ve said before that I have cut my losses and I’m getting the hell out of here, so I wish the rest of you fruits, flakes, and nuts the best of luck.
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I’m not quite ready to go ….. But it’s not going to take much more. If Schwarzenegger can’t successfully reform CalPERS and political districting ….
Brad, Gas here in Houston today was $ 2.02 a gallon. It has gone up 12 cents in the last week. I still don’t know how anyone would live in California. I guess our likes and dislikes is what makes the world go around.
We have John Perry here in Texas for our Govenor. He’s a Republican and he hasn’t done a darn thing for Texas. I hope Kay Bailey Hutchinson runs for Govenor next time.
There’s still plenty of room here in GA for a few more. But you should know that petrol here averages $2.25 per. The up-side is that the cost-of-living is much less in “Dixie†than the PRC.
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