Gas prices keep climbing, and it is hurting people where it hurts the most, their wallets.

As most of us are aware, gas prices in California have skyrocketed to nearly $6, making it very difficult for people financially.

But many people don’t know the reasoning behind these prices; the main contributor is the closure of refineries.

The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has recently decided to tighten environmental regulations, prompting gas companies to shut down their refineries because operating them is an outrageous expense. 

Without refineries, California has a hard time getting gas affordably, so we have to import it from other states and even other countries. This is when warnings that gas prices are about to rise start to surface, with prices at $12.

As of right now, in the mix of social media, we hear people blaming the current war going on between the US and Iran for the prices being up, but in reality, there is no strong connection to this.

We get 0 percent of our gas products from Iran; we mainly receive them from Texas, the Gulf Coast, North Dakota, and even Alaska. Other countries we receive these resources from are Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Colombia. Often, when people research Iran and how much gas it exports, it comes up as 4 percent of global exports, so they automatically assume that includes America.

Why do people blame certain situations on things that don’t actually match up?

This would be called Single-Attribution. This term, often used in psychology, refers to “the faulty reasoning of attributing a complex event or outcome to one single factor while ignoring other contributing variables.” We see this very often, in politics and even our personal lives. 

Now you may be wondering what gas refineries are.

Refineries are factories that transform oil into products for transportation and power generation, even helping planes fly. The refineries operate 24/7; that’s how important they are to our world. 

Gas companies own these refineries, and it is very hard for them to operate in California with high prices just to produce the product. Many gas companies are planning to import fuel due to high prices; this means prices will remain higher than usual. Profit is not being made the way they want for their companies, meaning not only are the policies causing them to close, but they are also having difficulty running their companies in California.

Gavin Newsom aims to ban all gas-powered car sales by 2035. This seems very unrealistic; if he does this, gas companies will lose all their profits, and people will have to sell their vehicles and buy all-electric ones. The idea is to benefit our environment, but is it really beneficial to the citizens?

Many argue that gas-powered vehicles can cause health issues and that electric cars will be much better for our society, but in reality, electric cars still emit similar levels of pollution, leading to many of the same issues that have plagued us for centuries.

If you disagree with California’s energy policy direction, contact your state assembly member and tell them. You can find your representative at findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov.