Letters to the Editor: Gas prices are up in California. It isn’t just greedy oil companies’ fault

To the editor: The Times’ editorial board criticizes greedy oil companies for charging Californians the nation’s highest gas prices, alluding to possible market manipulation arising from the industry’s opaque manner of doing business.

If oil companies really manipulated the market this way, why would they ever allow gas prices to decline? And why wouldn’t the companies use those same tricks to raise gas prices throughout the country to California levels? Why is California the only state being played for a sucker?

Reducing gas prices in California would spur increased gas consumption, adding to pollution and climate warming. Is that what The Times is espousing?

Gerry Swider, Sherman Oaks

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To the editor: I have never understood why gasoline is not treated and regulated like electricity, as a necessary utility, because it is just that. We all need electricity and gasoline.

If anything, gasoline may be more important, because our entire economy depends on it. The clear example is the food prices inflation, when the price of gasoline rose significantly, and so did that of groceries.

Robert Bachmann, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Persistently elevated gasoline prices in California no doubt arise from the drive for producers’ profits, but also because the state requires a much-needed special blend of smog-reducing gasoline not refined outside its borders.

Supply is further limited as many oil refineries here export refined products abroad as opposed to producing more gas. Former Gov. Jerry Brown also approved a large gasoline tax that has reinforced the divergence in fuel prices with other states.

It is right to emphasize the profit motive, but a limited supply, along with higher taxes and regulations, also contribute to the stark reality of higher pump prices in the Golden State.

Christian Teeter, Los Angeles