Elias: Blame oil industry, not government, for California’s high gas prices

Academics have known for plenty of years the promising for conflicts of interest when they conduct studies or write reports on products or companies for which they have consulted That s why they almost inevitably disclose conflicts Related Articles Elias Several California colleges could afford to stand up to Trump Elias Newsom s plan to save California film TV industry deserves OK Elias America won t be able to survive without undocumented immigrants There is also no doubt of the strong link between the Saudi Aramco oil company and California s biggest oil refiner Chevron known as Standard Oil of California when it co-founded with Texaco and two others just plain Aramco the Saudi Arabian company s name when Americans got it going in the s Fast-forward to this year in mid-April when television networks like ABC CBS and Fox plus Forbes magazine covered a research by Michael Mische an associate professor at the University of Southern California s Marshall School of Business that predicted gasoline costing a gallon in this state very soon There is no such thing as gas price gouging in California Mische contended As the New Jersey-based Forbes broadcasted the average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in California was more than above the national average Forbes quoted from Mische s assessment entitled Ensuring California s Gasoline Shield for the st Century Forbes published that it lays out a clear and compelling affair for why California fuel costs are so high the reasons being structural state approach driven and deeply embedded in how the state regulates produces and distributes gasoline It doesn t help that California refineries ship large amounts to neighbor states Mische blamed environmental regulations the state s cap-and-trade plan and seasonal gas blends as big causes of California prices along with high taxes and fees frequent refinery closures declining in-state oil production and the fact that no pipelines bring gas here from other states Other studies have indicated such factors account for about a third of the price differential Mische denies oil companies collude to raise prices despite phenomena like the huge price hikes of February when a single refinery outage shot pump prices up about per gallon overnight not just for the refiner with the outage but for every brand of gas The state then passed new laws aimed at punishing such gouging and no new similar incidents have happened since then Forbes broadcasted that Mische included a disclaimer saying he has not received any special compensation and has no promise or anticipation of future compensation for the work presented That was vague about the up-to-date past The upshot of Mische s document is that the new state laws are pointless because there is no gouging This may surprise the more than million Californians who received apiece from the state in mid-May after a settlement reached by state Attorney General Rob Bonta with three gasoline trading firms that allegedly manipulated gas prices in during another refinery outage Now comes Jamie Court the president of advocacy group Consumer Watchdog which has documented how oil company profits set records whenever California gas prices spike Court obtained a copy of Mische s resume and discovered the professor s private consulting firm listed the Saudi Community Funding Fund co-owner of Saudi Aramco as a major client That company and Chevron still have strong ties even though the Saudi establishment and its fund took ownership of Aramco decades ago The two companies also partner on advanced refinery apparatus So there s a direct link between California s largest oil refiner and a major Mische client This of discipline debunks Mische s disclaimer about impartiality There is no question that the policies Mische advocates to the Legislature will benefit his client Court wrote in a letter to USC bureaucrats Mische responded to an emailed query asking why he failed to disclose his tie to Saudi Aramco in the fresh paper saying he would provide answers to the emailed questions shortly The answers did not arrive Policies he recommends include tax subsidies and other giveaways to oil refiners and drillers Sacramento lawmakers were unaware of Mische s ties because of his failure to disclose them noted Court There is no question Mische s work would be looked at differently if people knew In failing to disclose he dishonors USC and its tradition of ethics The bottom line The decades-long pattern of industry-wide price hikes when only one refinery has an outage makes it clear specific kind of collusion and price gouging has long been at work Email Thomas Elias at tdelias aol com and read more of his columns online at californiafocus net