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Tell the CA Attorney General and the FTC To Oppose The BP-Tesoro Deal

BP's low-cost Arco brand and Tesoro are on the cusp of a deal that would artificially drive California gas prices up even higher! By further consolidating a market desperate for competition, oil companies will see their profits soar by restricting supply. Tell the California Attorney General Kamala Harris and the Federal Trade Commission to oppose the the BP-Tesoro deal and to regulate gas supplies in the state. 

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Who would want two companies, Tesoro and Chevron, to control more than half of California's gasoline market? Only people who think paying five dollars a gallon should be the new normal.

That could happen if the deal goes through for Tesoro to buy BP's refinery in Carson and its low-cost Arco brand. In California, refineries have shrunk from 27 in the early 1980s to 14 that make gasoline. Only a handful of companies own them. 

The more consolidated a market, the more tempting it is to make more money by making and selling less gasoline. That's what's happening in California. Our market is geared to shortages and scarcity, which is why a few refinery outages and some scheduled refinery maintenance can cause a price spike of the sort you should only see in the wake of a real hurricane.

Over the last decade, Californians have consistently paid prices that are 10 to 20 cents a gallon higher than the rest of the nation. Plus refineries in this state keep a lower amount of inventory on hand, between 10 and 13 days, compared to about 24 days in the rest of the country. It's no surprise that in the last decade, refineries on the West Coast have been consistently among the most profitable in the country. 

Don't let their runaway profits come at your expense! There is a simple policy fix. More regulation and less consolidation. Tell Attorney General Kamala Harris and the Federal Trade Commission to oppose the the BP-Tesoro deal and to regulate gas supplies in the state.