Gas prices continue to spiral higher here in California.  The cause is a refinery fire in Richmond, normally scheduled maintenance on others, and an unexpected shutdown of a pipeline.

This guy explains why all that matters:

“California requires a specific blend of gasoline that only the refineries on the West Coast make,” said Bill Day, a spokesman for Valero. “So when there is a shortage of that blend, you can’t just send supplies from somewhere else.”

The state is an economic island, self imposed by our idiot legislators, so when the unexpected conjunction of mishaps suddenly strike - the proverbial black swan - you get gas prices moving quickly toward six dollars a gallon.

Like someone else said on the internet earlier today, Romney ought to go to one of those southern California stations and film a commercial, simply pointing at the prices while a voiceover of Steven Chu and Obama from 2008 promising that gas prices must "necessarily skyrocket" play in the background.   In the end Romney could say something like, " Do you want this to come to your neighborhood?"

That would be an effective commercial indeed.