Southern California gas prices in 2015 have been among the most volatile in recent memory. After beginning the year with the lowest prices since the Great Recession, prices twice spiked above $4 per gallon.
Now, prices at the pump are on a downward swing again, falling to below $3 per gallon on average. What’s driving the prices? Jane Hall, nationally recognized expert in environmental ecnomics and professor emeritus of economics, discusses the volatile market.
“California is basically an oil ‘island,'” Hall says. “There is not significant capacity to move oil or oil products into the state except through the ports, by road and by rail, and even that capacity is limited, as is capacity to move gasoline within the state.”