{"id":224580,"date":"2026-03-18T01:41:43","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T01:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/224580\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T01:41:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T01:41:43","slug":"california-law-to-curb-refinery-price-gouging-delayed-five-years-rescission-option-unused","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/224580\/","title":{"rendered":"California law to curb refinery price gouging delayed five years, rescission option unused"},"content":{"rendered":"

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) California lawmakers passed legislation three years ago aimed at giving the California Energy Commission authority to regulate refinery profits and inventory in an effort to stop oil refineries from gouging drivers at the gas pump. <\/p>\n

But the law has been delayed by five years, with an option for it to be rescinded \u2014 an option that has never been used.<\/p>\n

Some Bakersfield drivers said high gas prices are already stretching budgets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would be really upset about that because its high, and half the people can\u2019t afford it and this is outrageous,\u201d Bakersfield resident Felicia Earnest said.<\/p>\n

\"California<\/p>\n

California law to curb refinery price gouging delayed five years, rescission option unused (KBAK\/KBFX)<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody is digging around in their pocket just trying to put gas in their car. It’s killing me right now,\u201d Lee Henderson said.<\/p>\n

After the law passed, the state ran into issues tied to the limited number of refineries left in California, according to Stuart Heisler, vice president of Anacapa Engineering and Design.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen refineries go down for a turnaround, that\u2019s like a yearly maintenance outage for a couple weeks, there is a dip in supply and a rise in prices,\u201d Heisler said.<\/p>\n

Heisler said the law has not been used because of concerns within the industry after it passed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened after that is three refineries said they were going to close. Keeping these inventories is not a valid thing to do it doesn\u2019t make business sense. We’re being overregulated,\u201d Heisler said.<\/p>\n

\"California<\/p>\n

California law to curb refinery price gouging delayed five years, rescission option unused (KBAK\/KBFX)<\/p>\n

Heisler added that California oil production has dropped sharply over the past decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know we were at 600,000 barrels a day, production ten years ago, and now we\u2019re at 300,000. So, it has been quite a precipitous drop,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s office said in part, \u201cNo California regulatory tool can’t open the strait of Hormuz. A minimum inventory requirement does not conjure oil that doesn\u2019t exist in global markets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heisler echoed part of that point, while arguing California\u2019s situation differs from the rest of the country.<\/p>\n

\"California<\/p>\n

California law to curb refinery price gouging delayed five years, rescission option unused (AP Photo\/Erin Hooley)<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nothing we can do in California to open the Strait of Hormuz. However, the rest of our country doesn\u2019t depend on any oil from the Strait of Hormuz,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) California lawmakers passed legislation three years ago aimed at giving the California Energy Commission authority…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-224580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}