How to curb our state’s gas prices (without drilling)

Real fixes are electric vehicles and mass transit. Until then, here are three steps to ease pain at the pump.

- PAASHA MAHDAVI GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

A CHEVRON in Torrance in 2022. Fuel costs in California have long been mysteriously inflated.

(CAROLYN COLE Los Angeles Times)

GROWING UP IN California in the 1990s, I remember noticing gas prices along the drive to school. Any time the signs showed more than a dollar a gallon, we would hear the late great Bob Edwards on my parents’ car radio, interviewing energy experts on NPR's “Morning Edition” about why costs were so high and when they'd come back down.

Now, as a professor of energy politics at UC Santa Barbara, I'm asked the same questions. Students, my family, government leaders and journalists covering the race for governor all want to know: Why are gas prices so high here in California? And how can we lower them?

Anyone who has taken an economics class would tell you about the law of demand: If you reduce how many people want something, its prices go down. If people use less gas, it will get cheaper. My research shows that the best way to do this is by investing in public transportation and walkable neighborhoods. Think of transit solutions like L.A.’s “28 projects by 2028” initiative.

We can also reduce demand by adding more electric vehicles into the market and by replacing old gas-powered vehicles with more-efficient models. In fact, California has already cut annual gasoline consumption by 13% since 2019. But cars and trucks take years to replace. In the meantime, demand-side strategies are not enough on their own to meaningfully curb prices at the pump.