Hobbs has no Plan to Reduce Prices at the Pump
For Maricopa County motorists, high gasoline prices are no longer an occasional inconvenience but a recurring hit to their wallets.
The story is the same every year. Every summer as temperatures rise, prices at the pump jump as well, often by as much as fifty cents per gallon in Maricopa County. Yet these price fluctuations, as frustrating as they have been for drivers, may soon look mild compared to what’s coming.
Arizona’s Historic Fuel Problem Will Only Get Worse In the Future
Arizona’s chronically high gas prices have been driven by two key factors. The first is that Maricopa County is required to use a specialized “clean burning gasoline” (CBG) blend that only a handful of refineries from around the country can produce. Compounding this issue is that Arizona does not have any in-state refining capacity of our own, making us reliant on imported refined fuel from high-cost California.
These complications have made our state vulnerable to price shocks. In 2003, a major pipeline failure limited gasoline shipments into Arizona and caused immediate price spikes and shortages.
In 2022, while gas prices did increase throughout the nation due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Maricopa County motorists were hit with significant price spikes, and consistently paid far above the national average. In 2023 and again in 2024, price volatility in Phoenix surged even when national averages stabilized.
And now this problem is only going to get worse, thanks to California’s foolish crusade against the fossil fuel industry. For years, our liberal neighbors to the west have adopted an endless barrage of new regulations and tax hikes that have strangled oil production in the state.
The chickens are now coming home to roost. The Phillips 66 refinery in the Los Angeles area has closed, processing its final barrel of crude oil at the end of 2025. After regulators imposed a record $82 million air-quality penalty on the Valero refinery in Benicia, Valero announced that it would close the facility. It’s last day of operation will be April of this year.
California officials were so unnerved by Valero’s decision that they even floated using $80–$200 million in taxpayer funds to keep the facility open. A stunning reversal that underscored the political panic over looming price spikes. Valero declined the offer.
These rolling refinery closures are forcing California to rely increasingly on imported refined fuel from across the globe, including from the Caribbean and Asia. All of this is adding transportation costs, supply lag, and more volatility to the cost of fuel. And ironically, adding way more emissions than if California produced and refined the fuel themselves. The effect of both of these refineries closing some predict will cause California pump prices to escalate up to over $8 a gallon!
With California being a primary supplier to Arizona, their cost increases are our cost increases. And yet, Hobbs and her Democratic colleagues have largely ignored these structural cracks that are getting more critical every year.
Highs Prices Don’t Offend Hobbs
There have been solutions offered to address gas price volatility and our dependency on California fuel, yet Governor Hobbs has resisted or vetoed every meaningful effort to expand Arizona’s fuel flexibility. During the 2023 price spike, when Phoenix drivers were paying among the highest prices in the nation, lawmakers and industry urged her to quickly pursue an EPA waiver to expand supply options. Instead, she delayed, until all the extra costs had already been borne by drivers.
In 2024, Governor Hobbs sent a sternly-worded letter to Governor Gavin Newsom to express concern about the potential impact of California’s SB 950, legislation that imposed even more onerous oversight on refineries, warning that further pressure on California refiners could harm Arizona drivers. But predictably, this letter had absolutely no effect on the pain at the pump for Arizonans.
Governor Hobbs’ failure to address the crisis has spurred Republican lawmakers into action. Over the last two years, GOP leadership at the legislature has introduced several bills to reduce regulations and increase fuel capacity. This session alone three bills are moving that would provide relief at the pump:
- HB2955 – creates a mechanism to temporarily broaden allowable fuel formulations during supply disruptions.
- HB2145– allows additional state officials to petition the EPA for emergency waivers.
- HB2014 – requires evaluation of alternative blends to expand Arizona’s supplier base.
By contrast, zero solutions have been offered up by Hobbs and the Democrats.
This inaction in the face of recurring price spikes in 2022, 2023, and 2024, provides little hope that Hobbs’ apathy will fade regarding even greater looming spikes for Arizonans in prospective years.
Arizonans Needs a Leader Who Cares About Affordable Gasoline
This is quickly becoming more than a seasonal annoyance. It’s an impending affordability crisis. High gasoline prices are a regressive tax that has cascading effects on the costs of groceries, construction, transportation, and every good delivered by truck. They hit working families hardest, especially commuters in Maricopa County who drive longer distances for employment. And will disproportionally harm suburban and ex-urban communities (like Queen Creek and Buckeye) whose economies of affordable homes only work with affordable gasoline.
Arizona’s fuel vulnerability is solvable. Too bad we have a Governor that doesn’t seem interested in doing anything to solve it.
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