Wax_off

I don't think there's more taxes in SF, but what is going on is that the price of land is so high that no one wants to put a lowly gas station on a piece of land that could hold a high rise. So per capita there just arent' many gas stations, which lowers competition and increases the price. In addition, the price of doing business in SF is higher and so the cost of the product is higher too.

Not a conspiracy, just the effects of market forces.

Another reason for high prices is all those fucking SUVs. Since they guzzle gas so bad they've increased demand, which increases prices. The worst thing about it is that their legacy will be with us for the next 20 years or so. People won't just throw away their SUVs because of high prices, they'll pass them down the line to a new owner and so on until the car is dead. Perhaps market forces will come to bear there also. Perhaps the price of a used, gas guzzling SUV will drop dramatically because of their outrageous cost of ownership when gas goes over $5/gal. One may get better money for a SUV as scrap then selling it.