nevada governor champions fair gas prices for consumers in western US

Nevada imports 88% of its fuel from California refineries. Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo recently toured Chevron’s El Segundo Refinery in California. His goal? To learn more about fuel production and Chevron’s operations.

Lombardo has recently expressed concern about how California policies affect gas prices in his state. Residents of Nevada and California usually pay a higher price for gas than the national average.

“It’s no surprise that California’s fuel policies significantly impact the costs and availability of fuel for Nevada’s residents and businesses,” he said, adding that California’s SBX1-2 legislation could further raise gas prices in both states.

Several factors contribute to the higher price of gasoline in Nevada. The biggest factors are:

• Nevada gets most of its transportation fuel from California. Because it is an isolated market, there aren’t many options for importing fuel from other areas.
• California refineries produce gasoline that is specially formulated to meet the state’s environmental standards. This creates an additional cost passed on to Nevada consumers.
• Policies in California impact gasoline production costs, which then impact prices in Nevada.

Chevron is one of the largest fuel producers in California, with refineries in El Segundo and Richmond. Fuel is shipped from Chevron’s El Segundo Refinery to Nevada via the Calnev pipeline, which is owned and operated by Kinder Morgan. This pipeline provides 90% of the fuel consumed in Las Vegas, Nevada’s largest city, including gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.

The governor is exploring the idea of neighboring states working together to ensure that residents have reasonable gas prices. On May 14, Lombardo sent a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom. In his letter, Lombardo asked for an assessment of the potential impacts of policies such as California’s SBX1-2 on gas prices in neighboring states.