|
Below are the monthly updates from the most current December 2022 fuel price data (GasBuddy.com) and October 2022 electricity and natural gas price data (US Energy Information Administration). To view additional data and analysis related to the California economy visit our website at www.centerforjobs.org/ca.
The latest data shows average gasoline prices continuing to decline from the supply-driven price increases earlier this year. December prices were down 24.6% from the near term high in October, and down 30.1% from the previous high in June. The most recent data from CSAA as of January 6 show prices stabilizing, with the California average price down a penny to $4.44 and the US price up 9 cents to $3.20.
California’s regulations and their effect of restricting the state’s access to alternative supplies combined with the state’s highest-in-the-nation fuel taxes and higher operating costs ensure Californians will continue to pay substantially more for fuels even with the current price easing. As the result of these California policies, gasoline prices in December were 43.3% higher than the average paid in other states. California prices were 63.6% higher than prices in the lowest cost state.
But while the current legislative focus remains on the potential for adding yet another tax onto the cost of producing fuels in this state, California policies continued to push electricity and natural gas costs to even higher levels in the latest data from October. On a moving 12-month average basis, California residential and commercial electricity rates were the highest among the contiguous states, commercial and industrial natural gas rates were the second highest, industrial electricity rates were the third highest, and residential natural gas rates the fourth highest.
California’s high electricity rates have also pushed the average household electricity bill further above the rest of the US. While California rates have long been somewhat higher than the US average, the state’s milder climate—at least in the higher income coastal regions—meant average electricity bills were substantially lower. The amount paid by households, however, continues to soar. First, average rates are not only higher, they are substantially higher at 82.6% above the average elsewhere in the nation. Second, state policies are deliberately pushing households and employers into a greater reliance on electricity as their primary source of energy. State policies currently are structured to force greater use of an energy source that state policies are now driving to even higher cost levels.
The resulting effect on household electricity bills is shown in the following chart. The average California electricity bill was near the bottom in the state rankings prior to the beginnings of the current climate change policies—as much as 6th lowest in portions of 2011 and 2014. The degree to which rates have since diverged from what is paid in other states have now taken California households to the 16th highest in the latest data from October.
|
