The visual provided in article tells a pretty good story. Blue state gas prices are higher than Red States. Do the oil companies have the ability to price according to which party runs the state?
Not always that way. Idaho pays $0.50-$1.00 more per gallon than New Mexico does. The reason? New Mexico has more pipelines serving the state. Idaho gets most of it from one line coming up from Utah.
“Blue state gas prices are higher than Red States. “
Easy to compare the state taxes. That tells the true tale.
Mathews wrote: “The visual provided in article tells a pretty good story. Blue state gas prices are higher than Red States. Do the oil companies have the ability to price according to which party runs the state?”
Those prices also include federal, state, and local taxes. Variation in the taxes can account for much of the difference.
Also, California for example, has strict requirements for chemical content of the gasoline and this requirement can seriously affect the final price.
Then there is the cost of distributing the gas from the refinery to the pump.
The states have their own gas taxes.