Gas prices hit $6.29 at a Chevron in Central California while a Great Gas station across the street was charging $5.49. That 80-cent gap between two pumps on the same block tells you almost everything you need to know about how this country prices fuel.

Four factors determine what you pay. The U.S. Energy Information Administration lays them out plainly: crude oil costs, refining costs, distribution and marketing, and taxes. Each one lands differently depending on where you live, and the spread between cheapest and most expensive states isn’t small.

Start with crude. It’s the dominant cost, accounting for roughly half your total price at the pump. When the Strait of Hormuz tightened and crude crossed $100 a barrel, every driver in every state felt it. That’s not a local problem. There’s nothing your governor or your congressman does on a Tuesday morning that changes what crude costs on the global market.

“People love to blame the President when gas prices spike,” said one economist, “but the President has very little control over gas prices.”

Refining runs about 15 percent of your final price. That percentage sounds modest until you’re in California, which mandates a specific fuel blend that only a handful of refineries in the country can actually produce. When one of those facilities goes down for maintenance, there’s no backup option waiting in line. Prices climb fast and don’t fall on any reasonable schedule. It’s a supply bottleneck built directly into state law.

Distribution and marketing chew up another 16 to 18 percent. Here’s where geography gets punishing. Hawaii and Alaska aren’t connected to the continental pipeline network, which means fuel travels by ship. That’s expensive, and the cost doesn’t disappear. It just moves from the shipping invoice to your receipt at the pump.

Then come taxes, and this is where states really diverge. The federal government charges 18 cents per gallon. States tack on an average of 33.55 cents per gallon on top of that, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. How states calculate that amount varies significantly. Twenty-four states charge a fixed per-gallon rate. Meanwhile, 26 states use a variable rate tied to fuel prices themselves. Of those variable-rate states, 18 percent fold in transportation costs when setting the rate. Some states layer on additional fees for infrastructure, inflation adjustments, and vehicle emissions programs.

Stack all that up, and it’s no surprise the most expensive states cluster in one region. According to World Population Review, the priciest states for gas in 2026 are California, Hawaii, Washington, and Oregon. Nevada and Alaska round out the top six. Every single one sits west of the Rockies. That’s not coincidence. It’s geography, regulation, and tax structure hitting simultaneously.

The price difference of 80 cents per gallon between that Chevron at $6.29 and the Great Gas station at $5.49 in Central California is extreme, but smaller versions of it play out everywhere. Drive 400 miles north into Oregon and you’re looking at roughly $5.00 per gallon. Keep heading east toward the middle of the country, and prices can dip below the national average of $4.16. Same Friday. Same crude oil market. Completely different number on the sign.

None of this means drivers are helpless. Understanding that refining costs spike when a single California refinery goes offline, or that Alaska’s isolation adds real dollars to every gallon shipped there, helps you stop looking for someone to blame and start looking for ways to adapt. Apps that track local station prices, timing fill-ups before holiday weekends when demand climbs, and knowing which states along a road trip route have lower tax structures can all add up to real savings.

The pump doesn’t care about politics. It cares about crude contracts, refinery capacity, how far the tanker traveled, and what the state legislature decided to charge when it last wrote a transportation budget. Those four things, not who’s in the White House, are what determine the number you see when you pull in.