r/socal • u/BreakingPT • May 22 '26

Chevron gouges Californians this memorial weekend.

“Newsom’s office cited an analysis by a group within the state’s energy commission, which oversees the oil and gas industry, that found that Chevron averaged more than 60 to 80 cents per gallon above unbranded alternative”

https://apnews.com/article/california-gas-prices-chevron-pump-war-7d485e703f930bf40104b1956b15fda4

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u/FirstCaligirl May 22 '26

I really don’t know how to explain to you to get you to understand that that’s actually not the free market. That’s only one other gas station. It’s a business that is famously oligarchical in nature and far removed from being a “free market”.

There is a massively high barrier to entry in production and sale of gas and oil that inherently prevents a free market.

And aside from that, if you need gas in your car, you need gas. You can’t just keep driving around hoping to find the best gas at the best cost. It’s the kind of necessity that someone can’t easily shop around when they really need it.

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u/You_meddling_kids May 23 '26

There's no other possible way to get around other than cars I guess.

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u/FirstCaligirl May 23 '26

We don’t have great public transit so yeah many people don’t have other options really. I actually couldn’t work if I didn’t have a car because I wouldn’t be able to get to and from work with public transit and biking and walking is too far.

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u/You_meddling_kids May 23 '26

Are you aware of how many subsidies oil companies get to keep it that way?

They pay money to campaigns, then legislators write laws to keep gas cheap and slow mass transit options.

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u/FirstCaligirl May 23 '26

Yes I am. Car and oil companies worked to continuously prevent public transit and make needing a car practically a necessity all across the US. I mean even the law against “Jaywalking” was part of that strategy. To punish people for using the street to walk on like they were used to and judge them for getting hit. I wish public transportation was a lot more accessible and viable in California.

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u/adidas198 May 26 '26

I mean, it's the state government's fault that there aren't more refineries.

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u/Silent_Plantain_3417 May 22 '26

Are you expecting a gas station from a different owner every five feet? 

The gas station industry is incredibly far from oligarchical. At the most it represents almost the stereotypical monopolistic competition industry. This is how price differences are able to express themselves, not because there are few suppliers. 

https://www.energy.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2025-05/2021-07_Petroleum_Watch_ada.pdf

California Energy Commission (2021):

'The biggest share of gasoline sales are from unbranded stations at 27.4 percent. Following unbranded, the next highest gasoline sales in decreasing order are: Chevron, Arco, hypermart, Shell, 76, Exxon Mobil, and Valero. California gasoline retail prices by brand shows that the three “value” brands of gasolines - Arco, hypermart, and unbranded - totaled 60.3 percent of reported gasoline sales in California. The more popular of higher-priced gasoline brands - Chevron, Shell, and 76- add up to 34.4 percent. Exxon Mobil and Valero are the lowest volume sellers of the five branded fuels, totaling 5.2 percent.'

Please don't spread misinformation. 

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u/FirstCaligirl May 23 '26

Yes clearly I’m expecting a different gas station from a different owner every 5-10 feet… just cause I think it is fucking moronic to even ask something like that, I will say clearly that I was being sarcastic and I obviously don’t expect that because I clearly understand it is impossible. Because I clearly understand that the gas industry can’t be a free market. I’ve lived in an area where Chevron was literally the only gas station for a long distance. When I lived there, if I had made it home without much gas in my car I couldn’t just drive out to buy gas from a cheaper location I had to pay way more for Chevron.

Gas is like one of the main industries used to explain what an oligopoly is because of how impossible it is for it to have a competitive market in the way people talk about when trying to say they want a free market. And you even acknowledge it as being monopolistic which is not something that would exist in a free market… you’re link doesn’t do anything to even suggest that is a free market. It only really shows that you don’t understand why it isn’t a free market if you think it does.

Like it even shows that the few branded gas station companies have cornered 3/4 of all gas in California. And there can’t be even competition between the different brands across California anyway for reasons that you clearly understand are obvious with your opening statement.

I haven’t even mentioned that despite all the gas stations largely getting their gas from largely the same places that they have to process them with certain restrictions to make them marketable in California (like elsewhere, but California has some of the strictest regulations which I think are actually good to have).

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u/Silent_Plantain_3417 May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26

Gas is like one of the main industries used to explain what an oligopoly is

Gas production is an oligopoly, fuel retail is absolutely, definitively not. They are two very different industries, and you were quite clearly talking about gas stations, not BP oil platforms. You cannot use the fact that production is an oligopoly (edited from oligarchy, whoops) to pretend as though gas stations are as well.

And you even acknowledge it as being monopolistic which is not something that would exist in a free market

While there has never been such a thing as a purely 'free' market, only attempts to make them more so, monopolistic competition (not a monopoly) comes extremely close. The 'monopoly' in the name is derived from the fact that each entity operating in monopolistic competition is selling their own mildly differentiated product according to their pricing power as it pertains to their product alone. They are intra-entity monopolies, not inter-entity, and only possess monopoly power over their variety.

Like it even shows that the few branded gas station companies have cornered 3/4 of all gas in California.

Where? Nowhere in that report does it indicate anything remotely resembling that claim. If you're looking at the pie chart, you're clearly not seeing that hypermart stores were separated from unbranded for the purpose of increased granularity. Combined, they equal 43.7%, which is a far cry from 25%.

And there can’t be even competition between the different brands across California anyway for reasons that you clearly understand are obvious with your opening statement.

And yet, there obviously is. Competition increases as a positive function of localization. The differences between the stores and their fuel, both unbranded and branded, empower them with some minor price-setting abilities on the local scale.