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Nancy Pelosi is sticking up for her constituents, amidst all the recent news that San Francisco has the highest gas prices in the nation.
She says that she's trying to make July 4th “Energy Independence Day" through a package of proposals.
As a pedestrian/public transportation user, we don't personally feel a direct impact from these high prices, but we'd be fooling ourselves to think that there isn't a trickle-down impact -- on any goods trucked here, on any driving-based services, and more. It's often said that San Franciscans pay a premium to live in this wonderful city, and that sentiment is surely right -- but enough's enough, and prices should not be high gratuitously. Time to figure out why gas prices are so expensive nationwide and even more out of line here. Especially since we keep seeing stories of record profits from the oil producers.
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My theory on the reason gas prices are higher in San Francisco than anywhere else, despite being not so far from some refineries, is this:
It's the same reason that for years, dry cleaners charged MORE to clean women's shirts than men's shirts, despite the fact that the shirts were generally slightly smaller - and why you can still find the occasional hair salon around the city advertising women's haircut at 25% more than a men's haircut - despite the fact that the hair may be the same length - BECAUSE THEY CAN.
Who were those women going to complain to, huh? Who? They either paid the dry cleaner, or spent an extra few hours on Saturday driving all around town to find a dry cleaner without the "female surcharge"... most didn't have the time to deal with it so they paid.
Same here. We don't have the time to drive out to Davis to fill up our gas tanks, or drive around looking for the next filling station, since there aren't very many left within city limits - instead, we pay, because it's there, and we are used to paying too much for everything now.
But - some enterprising women finally got the dry cleaners to CUT OUT the unfair gender-based pricing for basically identical garments, and that hair salon on Polk and Green better figure out they need to change their pricing too (last I checked, about a year ago, they still charged more for women's haircuts and when I asked about it, the surly shopowner said, "Why do you care, YOU aren't going to pay it" -nice.)
Good post. We often say that we have a "paradise tax" in Hawaii, too. Almost everything here seems to be slightly more expensive than similar goods and services on the "mainland." A part of the problem here is the increasing cost of gas. We've had some state investigations of local pricing but nothing has come of it. The state set a "gas cap" once and the day the "cap" went into effect, prices at the pump shot up sky high. They haven't fallen since. As we say here, "Go figure."
Transit users do feel a pinch from gas prices -- many of Muni's buses run on gas, so the budget has to be adjusted for rising prices.
Pedestrians feel an impact, too -- fewer cars on the road makes it easier to walk and breathe.
Reducing the impact on transported goods isn't impossible -- raise gas taxes while decreasing interstate trucking taxes.
The crime is that while gas prices have gone up in 2006 dollars by more than one dollar in just a decade, with the benefit accruing mostly to oil company profits, the federal gas tax has declined in current dollars from 23 cents to 18 cents today. Consumers are paying more at the pump, but instead of that money being used to provide public benefit, it's providing oil company profit. Stupid, is what that is.
Presumably people don't shop around too much for gas (I don't know - I don't drive). Gas prices do vary in the city but you don't see everyone going to the cheapest one, do you?
Case in point, the two stations at Divis and Fell - one is something like 30 cents a gallon more than the other, yet stays in business...
Gasoline isn't a pure commodity. For example, ARCO is usually cheaper, but any taxi driver will tell you that they get their worst mileage on ARCO gas. Also, the few stations that accept credit cards also tack on a surcharge for the benefit.
Additionally, California requires its own smog-reducing blends of gasoline, which contributes to supply disruptions because you can't sell "Arizona gas" in So Cal or "winter blend" in the summer.
My question is: What does Pelosi intend to do about it except complain? Her solutions all seem to be about reducing long-term consumption. It's an admirable goal, but tying it back to the recent increases in fuel prices is an exploitative non-sequitur.
I use public or bike to work, and own a car. I don't drive that often but even as an occasional driver with a small japanese car that gets some of the best mileage, I feel the pain. I have already reduced my reliance on gas as much as is realistic. What next?
as long as the us/israel war machine marches around the world for greed and bloodlust, we're all screwed.
To CS: you can join CityCarShare. They pay for your gas.