Students at De Anza College commute from places as far as Tracy and the rise in gas prices up to $6 per gallon may be more than what college goers can afford on a weekly basis.
“There are other options like taking public transportation; however, I don’t have time and it is very inconvenient,” said Maria Guardian, 21, De Anza student, who finds it ridiculous that gas prices are burning a hole through her pocket.
Price increase that has taken place over the past couple of weeks was caused by several refinery disruptions.
The Chevron plant in Richmond is the Bay Area’s largest refinery, processing 240,000 barrels of crude oil per day, according to Richmond.chevron.com. The refinery is producing at a reduced capacity and a pipeline that transports crude oil to Northern California was shut down. Since the large fire at the refinery in August, Bay Area residents have been left with a lighter wallet and paying record prices.
But, it is surprising that one  out of 14 refineries in California would cause such a extreme escalation in prices.
How could one refinery shake up the proportionality of demand and supply? According to energyalmanac.ca.gov, California produces up to 42 million gallons of gasoline every day, which is not enough to cover the 43 gallons of gasoline that Californians consume daily.
To keep up the supply, oil companies import upto 3.5 million gallons of gasoline per day in California to meet the demand, according to Western States Petroleum Association.
California clear-burning gasoline regulation restricts the state from using lower grade gasoline that cause higher levels of air pollution, making California the state with the cleanest gasoline. And the production of such a high grade gasoline is more expensive.
This is also one of the reasons why California cannot import gasoline immediately from neighboring states to meet the demand. The quality of the gasoline just doesn’t comply with that of the standard set by the regulation.
Contributing to the already pricey situation, the power failure at the Exxon Mobil refinery in Torrance could possibly cause gas leakage, leading to failure in meeting demands, according to Los Angeles Daily News.
“At the end of the day, I rely on my car for getting me to school, work, running errands, and et cetera.” said Cecilia Ledesma, 20, third year at DeAnza. “No matter how much it will hurt my wallet I am still going to buy it because it’s a necessity.”
Prices are expected to decrease within a few weeks as the refineries get back up to speed.