The Brief

Drivers are heading into the Fourth of July weekend with national gas prices at their highest level for the holiday in four years. In California, where prices remain well above the national average, the state’s petroleum watchdog has flagged a separate problem — one that goes beyond the state’s shrinking refinery capacity and isolated fuel market.

The last week of May was the Memorial Day holiday, when the Iran-war price spike was near its peak. Chevron stations in California charged an average of $6.34 a gallon that week — the highest of any brand tracked in the state, and 44 cents above the average unbranded station, those that sell gas without a major oil-company logo.

The finding came from California’s gasoline watchdog, a unit inside the state Energy Commission called the Division of Petroleum Market Oversight, which delivered a presentation to a state Senate committee on June 3.

The presentation showed branded stations charged more than unbranded ones in California — a bigger gap than in the rest of the country — and identified major brands’ grip on the retail market as a driver.

California can now see into its gasoline market as never before. But its laws may be fighting the wrong problem.

The state’s existing gas-price oversight laws, pushed by Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier in his term, centered on emergency price hikes, refinery outages and California-specific supply disruptions. Newsom backed away from some of the most aggressive measures last year after two California refineries announced closures. Economists say the harder target is a retail market where prices can be shaped by algorithms, supplier contracts and the buying power of the biggest brands.

As another holiday weekend approaches, and the worst of the Iran-war price spike appears to be subsiding, the debate has moved into court and the Legislature.

A federal class-action lawsuit filed last week in Sacramento accuses Kalibrate, a fuel-pricing software company, and several major gasoline retailers of using algorithms and competitor data to keep California pump prices artificially high, citing a state law that took effect this year barring algorithmic price coordination. Kalibrate has denied the allegations.

The lawsuit names several major retailers, including Marathon, which operates ARCO stations; 7-Eleven; WalMart, including Sam’s Club; Circle K and Albertson’s.

The complaint alleges that even small increases in California’s gas market can make huge differences, with every one cent increase costing drivers $134 million a year. It also cites research that using the software can increase prices by 6 cents per gallon, and up to 30 cents per gallon when many stations in an area are using the software.

The suit taps into a longstanding theory: Severin Borenstein, an energy economist at UC Berkeley, has pointed to what he calls a “mystery gasoline surcharge” — the part of California’s high prices left unexplained after taxes, environmental programs and production costs are accounted for — that shows up after gas leaves the refinery.

“The real question is, do they have evidence that the company or the gas stations are using the company to coordinate their activities?” Borenstein said of the suit. “That would be a major antitrust problem.”

On Monday, two Democratic state senators promoted new legislation that would let California’s attorney general investigate gas price gouging during wartime.

“This is not natural market forces at play,” said Senator Ben Allen, of El Segundo, a co-author of the bill. “That’s what we’re here to correct.”

New evidence points to the retail market

Even if the Iran war explains much of the statewide spike, it doesn’t explain why some California stations charge far more than nearby competitors. At a June 3 hearing, Tai Milder, head of the state’s petroleum watchdog, told senators the spike had exposed a separate problem.

“This is a global supply shock, and so it’s affecting the whole country,” Milder told senators. “As prices go up, it’s revealing what we already know, which is we have a branded gasoline pricing problem.”

His division’s data showed that the highest-price stations it examined were all major brands, not unbranded or hypermart stations, even though all gasoline sold in California meets the same fuel standards.

Chevron also charged the highest premium over nearby competitors, the watchdog showed. Milder’s division has traced that gap to how the fuel is bought and sold.

California has an unusually high share of sales through contracts in which a refiner sells fuel directly to a branded retailer at a price the refiner sets, the division’s analysis found. Those contracts can lock branded operators into paying more than unbranded operators for the same fuel.

Jeremy Martin, director of fuels policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, put it more simply: branded stations don’t get to shop around for the best price; they’re locked into buying from whichever refiner supplies their brand.

Chevron spokesperson Ross Allen said the company’s branded stations “compete in a highly competitive marketplace where consumers have many choices” and that most are independently owned, setting their own prices based on local competition and costs. He blamed California’s energy policies, not Chevron’s pricing, for the state’s high gasoline prices.

The Western States Petroleum Association, the state’s industry lobby, said California has fewer gas stations per capita than the rest of the country and fewer unbranded stations.

“Can you name any consumer good where the branded version does not sell at a premium to a generic alternative?” WSPA spokesman Jim Stanley said. “That’s true whether you’re talking about cereal, snack foods, jeans, you name it.”

The governor has made the wartime framing personal. Newsom singled out Chevron by name, accusing the company on social media of using its brand name to overcharge drivers amid wartime oil profits.

The tools California did not use

While California’s gasoline watchdog is finding weak points in the fuel market, the rest of the state’s price tools remain largely unfinished or unused.

After price spikes, Newsom called two special legislative sessions in 2022 and 2024 and pushed through new powers meant to prevent future shocks. The laws created the state’s petroleum watchdog, which has since found an unexplained gasoline premium of about 41 cents per gallon between 2015 and 2024, costing California drivers an estimated $59 billion.

But the laws also authorized more aggressive steps that have not taken effect: a possible penalty on excessive refinery margins, a requirement that refiners keep more gasoline in storage, and a rule requiring them to line up replacement fuel before shutting down for maintenance.

A key reason: two refineries have shut down over the past year. This spring, average gas prices climbed above $6 a gallon as the Iran-Israel war roiled oil markets, and the administration has been working closely with refineries to ensure supply.

The oil and gas sector, always a major lobbyist in California, spent $10.3 million lobbying Sacramento in the first three months of the year, according to California Secretary of State filings. The Western States Petroleum Association and Chevron made up the most of that spending total, respectively spending $4.3 million and $3.7 million.

The most aggressive of the special session tools — the penalty — would have capped the gap between what refineries paid for crude oil and what they charged wholesalers for gasoline. In August 2025, a majority of Energy Commission members voted to shelve the idea for five years, saying they could not conclude that the benefits to consumers clearly outweighed the costs.

That decision has drawn new criticism as refinery margins climb — from 49 cents per gallon in January to $1.24 per gallon in April, according to Energy Commission data cited by Consumer Watchdog. “The problem is we’ve sat on our hands and didn’t develop the tools — so they weren’t there when we needed them,” Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court said. “That was a big mistake, and it cost consumers a lot of money.”

The Newsom administration argues the unfinished tools wouldn’t have shielded consumers from this year’s spike. In written responses to CalMatters, Energy Commission spokesperson Niki Woodard said no state-level policy could protect against a global oil shock the size of the Iran war, and that California’s price increases this year have tracked national trends.

The Energy Commission said it is actively advancing the resupply rule, but has not moved forward with the reserve requirement. Last year, Newsom pushed a major priority of the oil industry through the state Legislature: a measure aimed at boosting domestic oil production in Kern County.

California mulls different gasoline strategies

The spring spike has revived a more basic question: if California will still need gasoline for years, how does it keep a shrinking fuel system stable, competitive and affordable?

One answer is more supply. The Newsom administration is tracking import infrastructure proposals for signs they could boost supply, including a proposed Phillips 66-Kinder Morgan project called the Western Gateway pipeline, which would move refined gasoline from central U.S. refineries into California and Arizona.

Anthony Martinez, a spokesman for Newsom, called Western Gateway “a promising opportunity to bring additional gasoline supply into the state and bolster resilience.”

Other proposals look at the structure of the retail market. A bill by Sen. Henry Stern, SB 1245, could give California more authority to change its unique gasoline blend, a cleaner-burning formula that is difficult to produce out of state, to make it easier to bring in fuel from elsewhere.

Martin, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the blend made sense at its creation. He said its benefits are smaller now because federal fuel standards and cleaner cars have caught up, and its costs are higher because California has less refining capacity and depends more on imports.

The Western States Petroleum Association opposes the idea, saying refiners already spent heavily to produce the cleaner fuel California required, and should not now be punished for making those investments.

The bill, SB 493, authored by Allen and Senator Josh Becker of Menlo Park, would expand California’s price-gouging law by adding war to the list of emergencies that can trigger the state’s 10% cap on raising prices for gasoline and other essential goods, unless the increase is justified by higher costs.

Becker and Stern have not taken any contributions from WSPA or Chevron, according to campaign filings compiled by CalMatters’ Digital Democracy database. Allen received a donation from Chevron in 2015, and none from WSPA, the database shows.

The oil industry sees that as a return to an old fight. Zach Leary, a lobbyist with the Western States Petroleum Association, said California already debated price-gouging penalties during the 2023 special session, and that the Energy Commission decided the refinery-margin penalty could hurt supply, maintenance and consumers.

Becker rejected that comparison, saying SB 493 targets a wartime emergency, not the regulation of refinery margins.

But even Becker, who is proposing a new way to crack down on the industry, stopped short of calling for California to revisit the most powerful tool it has already set aside. Asked whether the Energy Commission should revisit its decision to delay the refinery-margin penalty, Becker called that “a separate process,” and “a separate decision,” one that is in the hands of the Newsom Administration.

Topline:

Where the greatest risks are: Areas around downtown Los Angeles, the San Gabriel Valley, and northern Orange County may see hazardous air on the evening of July 4 due to particle pollution from fireworks, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District. Riverside County and San Bernardino could see hazardous air the next day as the particles from fireworks move east and combine with the region’s elevated levels of air pollution.

Other risks: The Inland Empire and most of Los Angeles and Orange counties — that is, nearly all of SoCal — may see unhealthy air at times throughout the weekend, as it does every year.

Why it’s unhealthy: Exposure to particle pollution can cause chronic coughs in healthy people and flare-ups of symptoms for people with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to the American Lung Association. If you’re in an area where people set off personal fireworks, the organization said those can be even more dangerous, since they’re closer to the ground and the air we breathe.

What to do: Stay inside if you can, and avoid physical activity outside. Unlike the recent fire at the Lineage Logistics warehouse in Boyle Heights, air quality officials say running air conditioners in your home will help, as will air purifiers, though they recommend against turning on fans that bring in outside air.

Other issues: Visibility in Orange County and the Inland Empire may be low Saturday night due to a soupy blend of high humidity and particle pollution.

How long the advisory lasts: It’s in place from 5 p.m. July 4 until 3 p.m. July 5.

The U.S. telecasts of this summer's World Cup games are drawing a record number of viewers. Fox Sports, which broadcasts the games in English, reports an average of 5 million viewers per match across 72 group stage matches. And Telemundo says nearly half of all World Cup viewers in the country are watching its Spanish language coverage.

Wednesday night, fans celebrated as the U.S. men's national soccer team knocked out Bosnia Herzegovina's team two-nil during the latest round of the Copa Mundial, as it's known in Spanish.

At Café Brasil in Culver City, California, Giselle Rosas and her mother Graciela Reyes, who were both born in Mexico, cheered for the U.S. team, along with Telemundo's famously exuberant announcer Andrés Cantor.

"That's the best part for everybody," Reyes said, imitating Cantor's long "Goooooool" calls.

Rosas noted the growing popularity of soccer in the U.S. "thanks to immigrants," and she said it's more fun to watch the World Cup in Spanish.

"A million percent. We like the excitement," said Rosas, "the feeling, the sentiment, the ambience, it's a night and day difference."

Giselle Rosas and her mother Graciela Reyes cheered for the U.S. men's national soccer team on Wednesday at Cafe Brasil in Culver City.

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That kind of passion, to date, has translated to an average of 4.6 million World Cup viewers of Spanish-language sportscasts on Telemundo and Peacock streaming services per match, according to NBCUniversal.

"This is the most watched World Cup ever in Spanish language in this country. The numbers are just mind blowing, really," says Miguel Lorenzo, a senior vice president at Telemundo Deportes.

"Basically, half of the country of the United States is watching the World Cup in Spanish on Telemundo. But we also know that only 20% of the U.S. population is Hispanic," says Lorenzo. "We're seeing audiences that are bilingual, that are Spanish dominant, that speak English enjoying World Cup coverage."

According to Nielsen ratings, 20% of Telemundo's World Cup viewers speak English as their primary language. And overall, Lorenzo says the viewership on its telecasts has increased by 122% since the 2022 World Cup Games.

He says excitement has been highest for the winning matches by Mexico and the U.S., and the network's social media platforms have surpassed a record-breaking one billion views.

"I can't tell you how many comments I've seen where people are saying, 'I don't speak a lick of Spanish, but I want to watch it on Telemundo because it just sounds more exciting. And maybe by the end of the World Cup, I'll learn Spanish,'" Lorenzo says. "Joy and excitement and drama: it's language agnostic, it's universal."

Unlike Fox, which runs commercials during hydration breaks for the players, Telemundo keeps its cameras on the field. That's something very much appreciated by fans like comedian Trevor Noah.

"We're seeing the players on the pitch discussing what's happening. You see which coach is more stressed…This is part of the game," Noah said during one of the World Cup parties he hosts on his YouTube channel. "When you cut to ads, you lose the stress, you lose the joy, the anticipation. So shout out again, Telemundo: Really, really amazing coverage."
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Think about all the things we do during the summer. We go outside more. We jump into bodies of open water. We bake under the hot sun. We light fires and cook over them.

This stuff is all fun, of course, but it's also risky.

Spare a moment to think about your safety this season, won't you? Here's how to protect yourself against drowning, heat exhaustion, tick bites and more.

Learn these 5 water safety skills 

Reported by Marielle Segarra 

According to the American Red Cross, at a minimum, everyone should know these five basic water safety skills.

First, make sure you are comfortable with jumping into water, submerging yourself completely and bringing yourself to the surface. Once you've returned to the surface, you should be able to float or tread water for one minute. When treading water, stay relaxed so you don't overexert yourself.

From there, you'll want to be able to turn around in a full circle and find an exit. Knowing how to get out of the water is "just as important as getting into the water," says Cullen Jones, an Olympic gold medalist swimmer and a water safety advocate.

Next, you should be able to swim 25 yards to an exit without stopping. You can use whichever stroke you're comfortable with. Jones adds that most pools in the U.S. are 25 yards.

Finally, make sure you can exit the pool or body of water without a ladder. Jones used the phrase "elbow, elbow, tummy, knee, knee" to teach his 3-year-old son this skill. (For more tips on how to become a strong swimmer, click here.) 

Designate a "water-watcher" to prevent drowning

Reported by Marielle Segarra 

A designated "water-watcher" is an adult who is responsible for monitoring the water and the kids in it.

To take on this role, the water-watcher should be sober and focused. They should also have their phone nearby in case they need to call 911. After a set period of time, like 15 minutes, rotate water-watchers. It's also helpful if they know CPR and have a flotation device they can use in a rescue. (Take our quiz to test how much you know about kids and water safety.) 

Know the signs of heat exhaustion 

Reported by Clare Marie Schneider 

If you're out with a group of friends on a hot day, keep an eye on each other, looking for signs of illness. "Somebody may notice something in you that you don't notice," says Dr. Renee Salas, assistant professor of emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Heat exhaustion is your body's warning sign that you're starting to overheat, Salas says. Generally, symptoms include sweating more than usual, weakness, dizziness, fainting, pale skin, nausea, vomiting and fatigue.

Pay special attention to seniors, children, people with certain preexisting medical conditions like heart disease and diabetes, and people on commonly prescribed medications to help manage blood pressure and mental health conditions. They are at higher risk of heat-related illness, Salas says.

If you or someone you know is experiencing signs of heat exhaustion, Salas recommends going into an air-conditioned room. If you can't find a cooler place, call 911, Salas says.

If you're still experiencing symptoms of heat exhaustion after removing yourself from the heat, seek medical care. (More tips on how to protect yourself against extreme heat here.) 

Do a tick check after spending time outdoors 

Reported by Pien Huang 

It's estimated that about 31 million people in the U.S. get bitten by a tick every year. Summer is peak tick season, and unfortunately, ticks can spread diseases, like Lyme. 

If you're spending time outdoors in the summer, especially in an area where ticks are common, like the Northeast, cover your skin as much as possible.

For instance, if you're going on a hike or working in the yard, you could wear long sleeves and long pants and tuck your pants into your socks. Then spray your clothes and your skin with an EPA-recommended repellent. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that you use permethrin on your clothes and DEET on exposed skin.

If you're hiking, stay on the trail and out of the tall grass.

When you get home, throw your clothes in the dryer if possible — that will kill ticks — and check your body for them right away. Generally speaking, the longer a tick is latched onto your body the more likely it is to spread disease. (Listen to our episode on ticks for more information on prevention.)

Grill in an open space, away from the house 

Reported by Ruth Tam 

Take precautions to prevent fire accidents. Before you light your grill, read your grill's manual. It'll give you crucial information about how and where to set it up safely. Avoid putting your grill against the side of your house or under a patio roof or someone else's balcony, for example.

"You want to have your grill in open air so there's a lot of space for the air to circulate and for the heat to disperse itself," says Jess Larson, founder of the food blog Plays Well With Butter.

If the fire seems like it's getting out of hand, don't panic. "When in doubt, just close the lid [and the vents] and have the fire die out on its own," says Larson. Cutting off the oxygen supply should kill the fire in a matter of minutes. And, just in case, "it's always a good idea to have a fire extinguisher on hand." (Read our story on grilling for beginners for more tips.)

The story was edited by Meghan Keane. The visual editor is CJ Riculan. We'd love to hear from you. Leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823, or email us at LifeKit@npr.org.

Listen to Life Kit on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and sign up for our newsletter. Follow us on Instagram: @nprlifekit.

Copyright 2026 NPR

Published July 11, 2018 — This summer, the world's biggest sporting event has an American soundtrack. At every match of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, players have walked onto the field to the opening strains of "Seven Nation Army," the song first released in 2003 by The White Stripes.

More than 2 million people have heard it blaring over PA systems in stadiums across Russia. So have hundreds of millions of television viewers around the world. That arguably makes it the world's most popular sports anthem — which isn't bad for a song from a country whose men's national team failed to qualify for the quadrennial world championship this year.

"It's simple, catchy and aggressive, so it's perfect for a sports anthem," says Alan Siegel, a Washington, D.C.-based journalist who reported on how "Seven Nation Army" found a home in stadiums around the world for the sports website Deadspin.

Siegel says that the first thing you'll notice hearing the song at a sporting event is that instead of Jack White's impassioned vocal line, fans sing the song's central guitar riff. "It's just, 'Ohh, oh-OH-oh-oh ohhhh, ohhh,' and that's it, just over and over and over. It just gets hypnotic."

It's a simple musical phrase: just five different pitches, spread out over less than an octave. "And with the exception of the second note, the notes are all in sequence in the scale — like consecutive steps on a ladder," explains Nate Sloan, co-host of the podcast Switched On Pop. "It's very egalitarian, the kind of riff that's the first thing you figure out when you're learning how to play guitar."

The minor key gives it an intimidating ring. "Those last two notes — from the flat six to the five — have a lot of weight in musical history. You hear them a lot in laments, which form a genre going back to the baroque," Sloan says. The rhythm compounds that feeling: "By holding on to that first note, it generates a feeling of suspense. Then you get the almost machine-gun rapid fire of the next four notes, and they're syncopated, on the off-beats. ... That gives the riff an urgency that makes it much more memorable."

"Seven Nation Army" didn't catch on right away: The song only made it to No. 76 on the Billboard Hot 100 after its release in March 2003 (though it did top the Alternative Songs chart). Its life as a sports anthem began six months later, when fans of the Belgian soccer team Club Brugge KV traveled to Italy for a UEFA Champions League match against one of the giants of European football, A.C. Milan.

"Some supporter groups were having some drinks before the match, and 'Seven Nation Army' was playing," Siegel says. "And then Brugge, which is not a traditional power, ended up upsetting Milan." The Belgians sang the riff as their team eked out a 1-0 victory, then brought it home as an unofficial club anthem.

Three years later, Club Brugge played host to another Italian team, A.S. Roma, and the tables turned the other way: The Romans headed home with a 2-1 victory — and a brand-new stadium anthem that they'd learned from the Belgians. That summer, Italian fans made the "Seven Nation Army" riff their own in the run-up to the 2006 World Cup, where they would score again.

"At that point, it sort of becomes the anthem of the Italian national team — and Italy wins the World Cup," Siegel says. "So it just takes off there."

Within a year, the song had made its way from European soccer to American football, starting with fans of Penn State's Nittany Lions. (Siegel says it was introduced by an executive in the school's athletic department who had heard fans singing it during Italy's championship run.) From there, other universities picked it up. NFL fans started singing it. NBA and NHL teams blared the recording during games. And music publishers sold thousands of arrangements for marching bands.

Within a few years, the song had entered the pantheon of stadium jams, alongside Metallica's "Enter Sandman" and Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger." But Sloan says "Seven Nation Army" has something that those anthems lack: singability.

"It's a folk melody," he says. "The riff has been deracinated and transformed into this instantly translatable chant."

Today, many soccer fans use the "Seven Nation Army" chant to sing the praises of players — especially those with five-syllable names, which notch neatly into the riff's last five notes. "We'll do it with Maxi Moralez, our No. 10, " says Neil Govoni, a supporter of the Major League Soccer team New York City FC. "And when [Italian player] Andrea Pirlo was here, that was also used for him. That cadence works a lot with many different players."

Professional soccer players disagree on whether chants make a difference down on the pitch. NYC FC defender Sebastien Ibeagha says he is too busy to listen when he's playing: "Half the time I don't really hear them," he says. "I can't say I've heard one yet that I've really picked up on. Sometimes I don't even know what they're saying, 'cause they're just so loud."

But two-time Olympic gold medalist and World Cup champion goalkeeper Briana Scurry says fan chants make a big difference to professionals."A lot of players might say professionally, 'Oh, we don't hear it,' " Scurry says. "But we do. We're human. It's a big energy boost. To have your home fans chanting together — it's very powerful and a moving experience."

Part of that power comes from hearing so many fans chant together in unison — an experience Sloan likens to being "a tuning fork in a sea of tuning forks."

"This is how people sang for a long time, especially before the advent of notation when music was strictly an oral tradition," he says. "Technology has eroded that in many ways, because so much music is now recorded. The moments today that allow us to access that more ritual and more social role of music are rare — like when we're singing 'Happy Birthday' or 'Auld Lang Syne.'

"At a moment when music education and arts education is at such a crisis point, I find any moment of public group singing is exciting," he adds. "It might get people interested in music who might not otherwise be — like, 'Maybe I'll join the choir!' "

Govoni agrees in principle, but he's over "Seven Nation Army" as a chant — especially after all the exposure at this summer's World Cup. Fan culture, he says, is a living thing that's always changing: "There are some songs that we sang in the first season that aren't really sung as much anymore, because we come up with new ones gradually."

As far as sporting events worldwide, however, Siegel says The White Stripes' riff hasn't worn out its welcome just yet.

"To be honest, I started to get tired of hearing it," he says. "But at every major soccer tournament, you start hearing it again. It's got a life of its own. It ebbs and flows, but you're gonna hear it."

Daoud Tyler-Ameen adapted this story for the Web.
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