Blame California politicians for the state’s sky-high gasoline prices

J.D. Tuccille : Gasoline prices in California are $ 4.53 per gallon compared to $ 3.17 per gallon in the U.S. He says the state recently raised fuel taxes on July 1 to 61.2 cents per gallon, up from 59.6 cents a gallon .

Tuccillille: Californians can blame state officials overall for the high cost of filling a car.

He says California policies have made the state an "island" because of "capacity constraints on California 's pipelines".

Months earlier , Newsom blamed California 's high gasoline prices on "price gouging" by the oil industry.

That was a year and a half after he signed a law that was supposed to end allegedly greed-driven price hikes by petroleum companies.

" Two refiners had five consecutive months of negative margins, with losses ranging between 9 and 44 cents per gallon".