Rep. Torres blames Trump for California gas prices. Nevada and Arizona prove her wrong.

"Trump and Republicans keep making life more expensive for working families," Rep. Norma Torres, a California Democrat from the Inland Empire, posted Thursday. "Gas prices are too high, and families are paying the price for their failed leadership."

Gas prices are too high. She has the culprit wrong.

Look across the state line

On Friday, AAA's state averages for a gallon of regular were:

- **California: $6.06** - **Nevada: $5.32** - **Arizona: $4.54** - **U.S. average: $4.29**

Diesel, which moves every truckload of food and freight in the state:

- **California: $8.48** - **Nevada: $6.86** - **Arizona: $6.35**

Arizona and Nevada have the same president as California. They pay the same 18.4-cent federal gas tax. Their refiners pay the same world price for crude oil, which is high right now for everyone. Yet a Californian pays $1.52 more for a gallon of gas than an Arizonan, and $2.13 more for diesel.

If Washington were driving the price, Phoenix and Las Vegas would pay what Los Angeles pays. They don't.

Where the extra money goes

The difference is built into California law.

- **State gas tax:** California's excise tax went up again on July 1, to 63.4 cents a gallon, according to the state's tax agency. Arizona's is 18 cents. Nevada's is 23 cents, plus county taxes. - **Cap-and-trade:** about 25 cents a gallon, according to the California Energy Commission's own estimate earlier this year. - **Low Carbon Fuel Standard:** about 17 cents a gallon, by the same estimate. - **Sales tax on top of all of it,** plus a state storage-tank fee.

California also requires its own special blend of gasoline that refineries in most other states don't make, which cuts the state off from cheaper supply when something goes wrong.

Then Sacramento drove refineries out. When Valero announced it would close its Benicia refinery, its CEO said California's "regulatory and enforcement environment is the most stringent and difficult of anywhere else in North America." Benicia stopped making fuel this year. Phillips 66 closed its Los Angeles refinery last fall. Between them, California has lost 17% of its refining capacity and now imports more gasoline from overseas.

None of that was done by Donald Trump. All of it was done by the Democrats who have run Sacramento for the last 15 years.

Same story on your electric bill

It isn't only gas. In August, the average California household paid 29.75 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Arizona paid 15.05 cents. Nevada paid 12.72 cents. The national average was 18.16 cents.

Californians pay more than twice what their neighbors in Nevada pay for the same electricity. That comes from state choices too: wildfire costs piled onto ratepayers, state-mandated programs billed through every utility bill, and rooftop solar rules that shift grid costs onto families who can't afford panels.

Blame the right people

Rep. Torres says Californians "deserve relief, not more excuses." She's right about that. Blaming Washington for prices that stop at the Nevada line is an excuse.

If she wants relief for working families, the plan is simple. Suspend the gas tax increase. End the cap-and-trade and Low Carbon Fuel Standard charges at the pump. Let refineries operate without being hounded out of the state. And stop billing ratepayers for Sacramento's pet programs.

Californians are paying for their own government's choices every time they fill up and every time they open the electric bill. That's the truth Rep. Torres won't tell them.