Refinery Reality Check

California’s Division of Petroleum Market Oversight (DPMO) has issued another warning, and it is one every driver in the Golden State should heed. Between September and November, several refineries will undergo scheduled maintenance, and that means less fuel coming into the market as demand remains steady. The result could be higher prices at the pump.

The DPMO report notes that statewide gasoline prices have already climbed by more than sixteen cents per gallon since mid-August, with Southern California leading the surge. That follows a familiar pattern. Earlier this year, a refinery outage in Martinez left markets scrambling and consumers paying the price. Stability only returned when imports skyrocketed to more than 170,000 barrels per day, underscoring California’s heavy dependence on foreign crude and refined fuels.

The agency has called on refiners and distributors to manage inventories carefully, line up imports early, and avoid panic buying in the spot market. It also reminded drivers that unbranded fuel is every bit as clean and regulated as branded gasoline, encouraging Californians to shop around for lower prices.

For CIPA members, the state’s cautionary tone highlights a deeper truth: refinery maintenance and market volatility are not the core problem. California’s policies — restricting in-state production and blocking reliable pipeline flows — force our energy future into the hands of foreign suppliers. Every planned outage, every hiccup overseas, ripples straight into California wallets.

As CIPA CEO Rock Zierman has emphasized, “We can either produce our energy here, under the strictest environmental and labor standards in the world, or we can import it from places that don’t share our values. The choice is simple: California must invest in its own stability.”