Texans have noticed that people arrive from California, and then start voting to turn Texas into California. There seems to be no awareness of the connection between policy and the cost of living.
========================
Aug 26 Branded Unbranded
Distribution Costs, Marketing Costs and Profits $0.410 $0.650
Crude Oil Costs $1.430 $1.430
Refinery Cost and Profit $0.850 $0.610
State Underground Storage Tank Fee $0.020 $0.020
State and Local Tax $0.076 $0.076
State Excise Tax $0.473 $0.473
Federal Excise Tax $0.184 $0.184
Retail Prices $3.440 $3.440
========================
Total State tax: 0.02 + 0.076 + 0.473 = 0.569
California high gas price might have more things to do with location, affordability, and demand than what people are willing to attribute to it.
The breakdown shows that California does have high gas tax, but it's not $2 high. Even within the Bay Area, I can see $1 price swing between the rich neighborhoods and other neighborhoods. Driving from SF to LA, and you can also see the price swing through different town. Some parts in LA county often have higher than $5/gallon. I'm guilty on multiple occasions when I just pull up to the closest gas stations and fill up without checking if I can save a bit more somewhere else. When half of your town earns at least $250K a year, the gas stations can jack up the price without being afraid of losing customers.
[1] https://ww2.energy.ca.gov/almanac/transportation_data/gasoli...
Texas builds way more buildings and makes much better use of space. Not to mention the additional costs of running the business and employing people, which are also added to all of their supply chains. It adds up.
I remember moving to SF and being shocked I was getting taxed the same rate as living in Toronto, but that doesnt include health care or nearly as much benefits as Canada. Canada gets a lot of heat from Americans for being 'socialist' but there's plenty of counter examples, Toronto builds 100x more buildings than SF, our corporate tax is way lower than US, our ratio of economic immigrants:family migration is significantly higher, our banks/governments have been more fiscally conservative, etc. Plus Canada ranks higher on economic freedom index than America (8th vs 17th): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_of_Economic_Freedom
I hope this perception that the US is a market economy starts to change. A state-by-state distinction is much better. California is always the leading example of this change and the best signal of where the US is heading, as other US states seem to copy California for some reason.
Only if you think being able to walk/bicycle places is undesirable. Just thinking about all those gated suburbs separated from each other by 6 lane roads and medians makes me shudder.
Not buying this. It'd been widely reported that California has different requirements for fuel than most of the rest of the states, so, there's probably a bit extra that goes into refinery costs in addition to your calculation.
Policy drives up "Distribution Costs". If it is hard to operate a fuel tanker trucking company in California, the cost of distribution will be higher. Truckers are regulated, trucks are regulated, tankers are specifically regulated, flammable liquid is even more regulated, there are normal business taxes to be paid, there are random fees to operate, and so much more. Policy makes the cost go up.
It is similar with "Marketing Costs". Simply operating a business in a highly regulated state is difficult. The ad agency will cost more, the places to advertise will charge more, and so on.
Refinery costs are much higher. California demands a special unique California formulation of gasoline. Even with California being a large state, this is a low-volume product. It's also a premium product. Actually running any sort of refinery under California law looks like a nightmare, and I'm sort of surprised that it is still a viable business in the state.
In the rich neighborhoods, the cost of land and property tax for a gas station is high. That ends up in the price.
California demands a special unique California formulation of gasoline
Winter gas adds oxygenates, supposedly reducing certain emissions by 10%. However, it has 10% less energy per unit volume, so you burn 10% more of it. Net effect: more expensive with no real world benefit.
Best of all, they blame additional local price rises twice a year on the changeover. It's quite a racket.
Is that actually true? They are a self selecting group, not a random sample, and probably conservative if they hold views that would cause them to leave a liberal state.
The one piece of data I've seen is that had native Texans been the only ones to vote, Beto would have won. https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2018/11/09/native-t...
Is that actually true?
A popular bumper sticker in the 1980s was, "Welcome to California. Now, go home."
had native Texans been the only ones to vote, Beto would have won
First of all it's a poll, not an analysis of actual turnout, and neither methodology nor numbers of pollees are given.
Secondly, no way do 99% of native Texans even respond to a media pollster.
People move out of California because of affordability more than ideology, just like people move to California more for economic opportunity than ideology. (It's true that the realization of ideology through policy affects both affordability and economic opportunity, but people moving because of the conditions on either of those dimensions are often not motivated by ideology.
Unfortunately, the effects of consumption aren’t contained to where (and when) one consumes
That’s why we need to enforce borders
So pointing out that the emissions (one side effect of unlimited consumption) aren't stopped by border control or a wall seems to be completely on topic.
Which "most lucrative market on earth" do you suppose they service?
You should really do a bit of additional research on: The Monroe Doctrine. Henry Kissinger, Salvador Allende & Pinochet. United Fruit & Guatemala, and the list goes on...
We are ONE singular species and the climate crisis ain't the elephants or squirrels fault my friend.
Then there's this thing called a global market, but I defer to your urge to hide under the covers and suck your thumb instead of engaging with the real world.
Drugs are illegal in far more countries than the US.
The other large driver to many of those things is war. I’d rather have consumption.
Its only a matter of time before people just ignore the idea from 13 east coast colonies trying to avoid population centers driving policy unilaterally and continent wide.
One ideology lives in sparsely populated counties and only barely has consensus in even those counties (usually just slightly more than 50%). Whereas the other ideology simply does have the numbers and if a tiny fraction of them could stand living in the middle of nowhere for 18 months they could vote the entire country their way forever.