Why California gas prices might jump in 2015

Starting in January, fuels sold in California will fall under the state's cap-and-trade system to fight global warming.

Oil companies already have to buy "allowances" to cover the greenhouse gases that their California refineries pump into the atmosphere.

[...] they'll also have to pay for the emissions produced by burning the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel they sell in the state.

The result, according to the San Ramon company, will be a sharp rise in California's gasoline prices, already among the highest in the continental United States.

While state officials and some economists consider that fear overblown, the oil industry is pushing hard to get fuels exempted from cap and trade, or at least delay their inclusion in the system.

Chevron executive vice president Mike Wirth - who leads the company's global refining, marketing and chemicals businesses - spoke with The Chronicle about prices and cap and trade.

[...] we think California motorists need to know three basic facts about this: (1) California's government itself says this will increase gasoline prices, (2) it will have no impact on the global inventory of greenhouse gas emissions, and (3) it will create billions of dollars of new revenue for the politicians in Sacramento.

If you look at the entire objective of California's system, the greenhouse gas reductions envisioned for 2020, it's less than 0.2 of 1 percent of the global greenhouse gas inventory in 2020.

Chevron and the other oil companies have already been buying and banking allowances to cover fuel emissions next year.