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Annual Refiner Costs Would Most Likely Be Around $58 Million

• Maintaining compliance with the proposed regulations would cost refiners an estimated $58 million per year.

Costs to Society Would Come in the Form of Increased Gasoline Prices

• In recent years, gasoline consumption in California has averaged about 14.5 billion gallons per year. Spreading the $58 million estimated refiner cost of the regulations across this volume of sales indicates a price increase of about $0.004 per gallon.

Safety Improvements Could Reduce the Number of Costly Major Refinery Incidents

• Each major refinery incident avoided could save refiners about $220 million.
• These changes could also improve system reliability, community relations, labor–management relations, and company reputation and public image.

Benefits to Society Would Come in the Form of Costs Avoided and Deaths Avoided

• The largest potential benefit of the proposed regulations is the avoided cost of fuel-supply disruption related to a future major refinery incident. The researchers estimated that major refinery incidents have cost California consumers about $800 million per year, averaged over the past 16 years.
• Reducing the number of refinery incidents avoids costs to those living near afflicted refineries, including emergency services, health care, reductions in property values, and reductions in local tax revenue to local governments.
• The benefits could extend to prevented death and injury among nearby residents and refinery workers.

The Cost–Benefit Analysis Finds a Break-Even Point

• The regulations need to make California refineries 7.3 percent safer than they are under the current regulations in order to be worth their cost.