{"id":2691250,"date":"2026-10-25T09:56:59","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T13:56:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/californias-high-price-petroleum-virus-may-spread-across-the-west-analyst\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T09:56:59","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T13:56:59","slug":"californias-high-price-petroleum-virus-may-spread-across-the-west-analyst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/californias-high-price-petroleum-virus-may-spread-across-the-west-analyst\/","title":{"rendered":"California&#8217;s High-Price Petroleum Virus May Spread Across the West: Analyst"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcalifornias-high-price-petroleum-virus-may-spread-across-the-west-analyst%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2691250&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><br \/>\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\"><br \/>\n<?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><html><body><\/p>\n<section> \t\t\t\t<script>console.log(\"ad slot (AC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC2)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC3)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC4)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (REP_0)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (REP_1)\")<\/script><\/p>\n<p>California\u2019s troubled refineries threaten to spread a diesel price virus hitting drivers and businesses across the West, an analyst warns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"LexicalEditorTheme__paragraph\">Wholesale diesel prices in Los Angeles and San Francisco have reached record highs, with Los Angeles prices surging 52 cents per gallon and San Francisco prices climbing 21 cents, Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy <a class=\"LexicalEditorTheme__link\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/GasBuddyGuy\/status\/2110147293429076047\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> on X late Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"LexicalEditorTheme__paragraph\">The increases come as refinery maintenance squeezes regional fuel supplies, threatening to push retail diesel prices higher.<\/p>\n<p class=\"LexicalEditorTheme__paragraph\">\u201cAs neighboring states are in the same vicinity and sometimes supplied by California, pricing impacts will likely spill into WA, OR, NV and AZ as well as CA,\u201d De Haan told the Daily Caller News Foundation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"LexicalEditorTheme__paragraph\">\u201cA high level of refinery maintenance is impacting the West Coast,\u201d De Haan added. \u201cAs what comes out of a barrel is more gasoline than diesel, it is diesel that is seeing larger impacts right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The refinery maintenance crunch comes as American energy producers continue navigating disruptions tied to the Iran conflict, which has placed additional pressure on global fuel markets.<\/p>\n<p>Diesel prices have already climbed so high in California that some stations reported prices reaching the $9.99 limit on their pumps. California\u2019s gas prices remain around $2 above the national average, <a class=\"LexicalEditorTheme__link\" href=\"https:\/\/gasprices.aaa.com\/?state=CA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according<\/a> to the American Automobile Association (AAA) as of Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"LexicalEditorTheme__paragraph\">\u201cWe are entering the fall turnaround season for refineries,\u201d energy analyst David Blackmon told the DCNF.<\/p>\n<p class=\"LexicalEditorTheme__paragraph\">\u201cMany U.S. plants have been running at full capacity well beyond their scheduled maintenance calendars due to the Iran Conflict \u2014 keeping them running full-out even longer risks breakdowns and incidents no one wants to see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"LexicalEditorTheme__paragraph\">Years of regulatory pressure and refinery closures have left California increasingly dependent on fuel shipments from Asia and the Gulf Coast, making the state\u2019s fuel market more vulnerable to disruptions, energy analyst Stuart Turley argued.<\/p>\n<p class=\"LexicalEditorTheme__paragraph\">\u201cThere is only two ways to lower prices at the pump for diesel, gasoline and jet fuel. That is demand destruction, or more refineries,\u201d Turley told the DCNF.<\/p>\n<p class=\"LexicalEditorTheme__paragraph\">California was projected to lose approximately 17% of its refining capacity through the closures of two major facilities, <a class=\"LexicalEditorTheme__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/todayinenergy\/detail.php?id=65704\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according<\/a> to a July 2025 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).<\/p>\n<p class=\"LexicalEditorTheme__paragraph\">The agency warned that the loss of production could increase fuel price volatility across the West Coast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"LexicalEditorTheme__paragraph\">\u201cIf gas diesel prices do go higher as De Haan predicts, California can look to [Democratic Gov.] Gavin Newsom and his regulatory agenda that has resulted in decimating the state\u2019s refining sector in recent years,\u201d Blackmon told the DCNF.<\/p>\n<p>The West Coast\u2019s relative isolation from Gulf Coast refining hubs\u00a0makes it difficult to replace lost production through domestic pipelines, per the EIA\u2019s 2025 report.<\/p>\n<p>The agency identified imports from Asia as a likely source of replacement fuel, leaving the region increasingly exposed to international supply conditions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"LexicalEditorTheme__paragraph\">\u201cCalifornia\u2019s shrinking refining capacity will undoubtedly harm its residents and its highly dependent neighbors, especially Arizona and Nevada, given both states\u2019 substantial reliance on California for transportation fuels, including gasoline and diesel,\u201d Caleb Jasso, Senior Policy Advisor, Institute for Energy Research told the DCNF.<\/p>\n<p class=\"LexicalEditorTheme__paragraph\">\u201cUnfortunately, what happens within California\u2019s state energy market does reverberate throughout its neighboring states, and because Arizona has no in-state refining capacity and Nevada only has one, which came back online last month and has a low daily refining capacity rate, they are each heavily reliant on California for, in Arizona\u2019s case, nearly a third and, in Nevada\u2019s case, the overwhelming majority of their fuel. \u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe hostile environment California created for traditional fuels through policy and political rhetoric led to the recent closures of two major refineries and may inevitably lead more in-state refineries and energy producers to re-evaluate the benefits of remaining in California, as well as lead to even higher prices at the pump,\u201d Jasso said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"LexicalEditorTheme__paragraph\">\u201cAmid the ongoing global supply disruption, California\u2019s restrictive energy policies have led to a greater dependence on foreign sources of energy, weakening energy security across the West. Preserving fuel supply, maintaining market flexibility and supporting investment in critical infrastructure are essential to protecting consumers from unnecessary price volatility while strengthening America\u2019s long-term energy security,\u201d API Spokesperson, told the DCNF.<\/p>\n<p>California serves as a critical artery for America\u2019s trucking industry, with the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach handling roughly 31% of the nation\u2019s containerized waterborne trade in 2025, <a class=\"LexicalEditorTheme__link\" href=\"https:\/\/portoflosangeles.org\/business\/statistics\/facts-and-figures\">according<\/a> to the Port of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"LexicalEditorTheme__paragraph\">\u201cWe run California, and we try not to fill up there. But one day, we put fuel in, and it was nine dollars a gallon,\u201d Marcus Overcast, owner of Truckload LLC told the DCNF.<\/p>\n<p class=\"LexicalEditorTheme__paragraph\">The trucking industry is already feeling the squeeze, with at least 16 transportation companies filing for bankruptcy in less than a month as diesel prices surged.<\/p>\n<p class=\"LexicalEditorTheme__paragraph\">\u201cUnfortunately, California\u2019s pathologies related to energy markets do bleed over into neighboring states like Arizona and Nevada,\u201d Blackmon said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"LexicalEditorTheme__paragraph\">\u201cNone of this needed to happen \u2014 every bit of it is due to stupid policy decisions by state public officials. 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Wholesale diesel prices in Los Angeles and San Francisco have reached record highs, with Los Angeles prices surging 52 cents per gallon and San Francisco prices climbing 21 cents, Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2691251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_4286.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2691250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_4286.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2691250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2691251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2691250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2691250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2691250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}