Chevron fights accusations of price manipulation at California gas pumps

Chevron has filed a motion in a California US District Court to dismiss a lawsuit against the oil and petroleum giant that alleges it manipulated prices in the state.

The nearly 50-page motion, filed against the gas giant — along with other California refineries — on March 26 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California seeks to dismiss a previous lawsuit filed last year that claims the companies orchestrated an unlawful scheme to artificially inflate gasoline prices by misrepresenting compliance costs associated with the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) program.

“And although the point of the alleged conspiracy was supposedly to raise gasoline prices, Plaintiffs do not plead any gasoline price set by any defendant, much less allege facts showing that they all incorporated inflated LCFS costs into their prices in parallel,” the motion says.

“Plaintiffs’ conspiracy theory also fails because it is nonsensical. If the goal was to conspiratorially increase prices, Defendants could have just raised their prices—there is no need for the convoluted, roundabout mechanism Plaintiffs invent here.”

Defendants allegedly began charging consumers approximately 7 cents per gallon in LCFS-related costs starting January 1, 2025, even though new, stricter LCFS amendments did not take effect until July 1, 2025.

Outside of Chevron, the other defendants in the case include the “five largest oil refiners” in California — which collectively control approximately 97% of the state’s gasoline supply — Valero Marketing and Supply Company, PBF Energy Inc., Martinez Refining Company LLC, Torrance Refining Company LLC, Marathon Petroleum Company LP, and Phillips 66 Company.

Valero’s Benicia refinery has expressed intent to cease refining operations by the end of April 2026. Phillips 66 also announced plans to close its Los Angeles refinery in late 2025.

In the motion to dismiss, Chevron and the other defendants argue that the case should be thrown out because the plaintiffs fail to provide any actual evidence of a conspiracy and lack the legal standing to sue.

Two law firms and Consumer Watchdog filed the original class action complaint on November 26, 2025.

The California Post has reached out to Chevron for comment on the recent development in the case.

This also comes at a time when gas prices in California are averaging nearly $6 per gallon, with Los Angeles County seeing prices above $6.

Chevron recently began pushing oil from an offshore field after nearly 15 years, following an oil spill that shut it down.

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