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Yeah, Santa Cruz. The whole coastal area is being reamed by the price of gas. It's obscene. Gas is cheaper up at Lake Tahoe, or Reno. Makes no sense.

California has higher state taxes on gas than Nevada. Also, a couple years ago, CA passed a law mandating a special formulation in CA gas "for the air". This in effect requires special refining capacity and delivery systems for CA alone. In effect, it takes CA gasoline out of the commodity market and into a specialized one. With less competition, gas prices have gone up. Also, any mild hiccup in the production line (e.g., a small fire shuts down a CA refinery for a day) totally screws-up the system and prices jump dramatically. I don't know if the enviro-nazis had this planned, but it was a "brilliant" move, because the resulting price increase was greated than that expected from the mere formulation change.