California leaders report four to six weeks worth of gasoline and diesel supply (opens in new tab)

What this article fails to mention is that there are also a record number of empty tankers routed to the US refineries right now, with the intention of shifting still-relatively cheap US oil products to overseas markets where the prices are already much higher and shortages have already hit. The effects of the Iran war on the US economy will really start to kick in over the next several months.

All the more reason why we need to move off of everything that doesn't require gasoline/diesel: those are precious resources that shouldn't be wasted on Starbucks runs.

Isn't 4-6 weeks about normal conditions? It feels like a large amount of slack for a modern JIT logistical system. Anymore enters strategic reserves territory.

Interesting. I thought the USA secured cuban oil to prepare for the fallout of the iran war. Was that not enough?

I’m surprised that only “18.9% of new car sales” in California are electric [1].

[1] https://www.energy.ca.gov/news/2026-01/california-surpasses-...

6 weeks are standard. If you want to keep it for longer it needs additives which increase price. Noone does that usually.

When you see the U.S Government making near daily public statements with the intended effect of calming markets and the public.... It's time to be worried. A.K.A when the government says "everything is going to be ok, don't worry we got this under control" that's when shit is bad. This is what we have been seeing. It seems we are near a tipping point now.

Soon gas stations in the Bay Area will have to price Gasoline in quarts, because the gas pumps can only display up to $9.99.

I'm a bit perplexed on this one-- Yes, we refine our own blend of gasoline, but it's based on market oil -- nothing about the war we started with Iran impacts our domestic refining capability.

Also, oil takes longer to get from Iran to the west coast than to the east coast. Shouldn't the east coast be the first to notice decreased shipments, because the west coast essentially has a stock still in transit for longer?

EDIT: Nevermind, now I see that 25% of CA gas is refined overseas.

Didn't California shut down 2 high capacity refineries in the last couple of years?

People will blame climate policy on this but this is evidence that we've failed to move off our fossil fuel dependency.

Governments have gotten in the bad habit of acting like nothing will ever go wrong. Living paycheck-to-paycheck, so to speak. Cali not the only one suffering this fate. It doesnt matter if it's Trump's fault or not. Lets just say it is. Bad things happen. You have to be ready.

the entire economy of California being dependent on how Iran is feeling on a given day is crazy work