Opinion: Big Oil needs Californians to fall for its slick marketing campaign. Don’t be fooled.

By Jerry McNerney and Henry Stern

Motorists around the nation and the world have been paying higher prices for gasoline because President Trump’s war in Iran sparked a global oil supply shortage.

Yet California still gets a lot of criticism for high gas prices. There are a few reasons why we pay more at the pump than motorists in other states, most notably our nation-leading standards for limiting air pollution. 

And those standards have been effective. Since 2000, the state has slashed harmful emissions by 65%, contributing to significantly improved air quality in the Los Angeles basin, the Central Valley and other regions of the state.

But it turns out that there is also a nefarious reason why the average price of gas is higher in the Golden State. Major gasoline brands, such as Chevron, Shell, Mobil and 76, are causing California’s gas prices to be higher than they should be because their retailers charge significantly more per gallon here — up to about 70 cents more — than unbranded gasoline of the same quality that discount retailers such as Costco and Walmart sell in the state. 

To read the full op-ed, click here.