Golden State Gouging Greatest Ever

At a time of historic low crude oil costs, Southern Californians are currently paying $4.00 per gallon for regular gas.

That's $1.30 more than the national average -- the widest gap ever recorded.

Prices at the pump have skyrocketed 69 cents in one month due to shortages and refinery outages. Convenient for the oil refiners, which reported record first quarter profits.

California oil refiners are the only companies in America that make a fortune when their factories go down.

Californians know gouging when they pay for it, and they are angry. That's why the CEOs of the oil companies are refusing to testify before the state legislature on the gas price spikes. They have no good answers, other than what they tell their investors on calls, which is literally that they're getting rich in the West.

This short video by Tom Steyer's NextGen Climate takes on the gouge and the oil companies' CEOs' refusal to answer questions about it.

It's high time for California oil refiners to answer elected officials' questions with more than silence. At four bucks per gallon, they have a lot of explaining to do.