Add My Organization’s Support for SB 1322 (Allen)

The California Oil Refinery Cost Disclosure Act

Deadline To Sign April 1st

Senator Ben Hueso

Chair

Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee

Re: Support for SB 1322 

Senator Heuso,

At $5.59 per gallon,  average California gasoline prices are $1.27 per gallon higher than US gasoline prices according to the latest data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA).   

Oil refiners claim the added costs are due to taxes and fees for environmental programs, but those added costs are less than half the delta between US and California pump prices.   

Californians deserve to know how much California oil refiners are making from the added price we pay at the pump.  

SB 1322 (Allen), the California Oil Refinery Cost Disclosure Act, will allow Californians to finally know how much the big five oil refiners in the state are profiting from each gallon of gasoline they sell.

SB 1322 requires every California oil refiner to report monthly (for each of its California refineries that manufactures gasoline) its Gross Refining Margin per barrel, the difference between the price of crude it buys and the cost of finished gasoline it sells, and its Net Refining Margin (the “crack spread” or Gross Refining Margin minus its operational and fixed costs). The reports would be posted on the California Energy Commission website.

A 2019 report by the California Energy Commission concluded that “the primary cause of the residual price increase is simply that California’s retail gasoline outlets are charging higher prices than those in other states… The overall California increase in retail margins, above that experienced by the rest of the U.S. has resulted in California gasoline consumers paying an estimated additional $1.5 billion in 2018 and $11.6 billion over the last five years.”

California oil refiners continue to basely blame environmental costs for their own profiteering. SB 1322 will force the oil refiners to open their books and report the same information they report in other parts of the country. 

We ask for your support for SB 1322.

Sincerely,