The California Energy Commission Appoints Energy Institute at Haas’s Severin Borenstein as Chair of the Petroleum Market Advisory Committee

PMAC To Discuss Why California Gasoline Prices are Unusually High
 

BERKELEY – The Chair of the California Energy Commission, Robert B. Weisenmiller, has appointed Severin Borenstein, E.T. Grether Professor of Business Administration and Public Policy at the Haas School of Business and Research Associate of the Energy Institute at Haas, UC Berkeley, as Chair of the Petroleum Market Advisory Committee (PMAC). The PMAC was established by the California Energy Commission to provide expert advice on market trends and to recommend policy solutions for market instability. As Chair, Borenstein will serve as the primary spokesperson for the Committee before the Energy Commission.
 

I'm honored and excited to be leading the PMAC," said Borenstein. "California's gasoline prices have been way out of line with the rest of the nation since mid-February, much longer than in previous price spikes. This is costing California consumers millions of dollars every day. Taxes and the cost of our cleaner burning gasoline do not explain the differential. I hope to bring together all stakeholders to have a serious discussion about why our gasoline prices are unusually high."

The Committee is made up of five leading petroleum fuels market experts who will provide the Energy Commission and state regulators with independent advice and insights on issues, from local policies to global events, affecting the market. In addition to Borenstein, committee members are James Sweeney, Director of the Stanford University Precourt Energy Efficiency Center; Amy Jaffe, Executive Director of Energy and Sustainability at University of California, Davis; Kathleen Foote, Senior Assistant Attorney General and Antitrust Chief at the California Attorney General's Office; and Dave Hackett, President, Stillwater Associates.