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Monthly electricity bills will rise 8.5 percent, increasing $7.58 from the previous $89.56 to a new average of $97.14, PG&E said. . . More increases could be in the works, however.

Patrick DeHaan, a senior petroleum analyst with GasBuddy.com, tied California’s rising prices to ongoing problems at the ExxonMobil refinery in Torrance. The facility, which typically produces about 10 percent of California’s specially formulated gasoline, has been offline for gas production since an equipment failure caused an explosion there in mid February, injuring four people. . . The problem has been compounded by the fact that California is an island when it comes to getting gas from outside the state.

A recent analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that more than seven million people who are eligible for exchange coverage would pay less in penalties than for the least expensive insurance available to them. More than half would not qualify for subsidies, the analysis found.

PG&E’s average monthly bill for residential customers in 2016 will jump 7 percent to $147.21, the utility reported Wednesday. That follows a 6 percent rise at the start of 2015 and marks the highest increase since 2006. . . More bill increases will likely follow.

The typical San Francisco millennial can only afford to buy 135 square feet of housing, the lowest buying power in the country, according to personal finance company SmartAsset. . . San Francisco also requires discretionary review of all major projects, which adds months for new development. Other cities allow new buildings to be built if they conform to existing zoning codes. The median time from initial applications to completions ranged from 38 months to projects under 10,000 square feet to 71 months for projects over 250,000 square feet, according to Paragon.

Allison Mac, a Los Angeles-based petroleum analyst for GasBuddy, said the recent spikes were tied to a flurry of breakdowns and “maintenance issues” at multiple Golden State refineries that produce the specific blend of gas required in California.

In the lower 48 states, the highest average price of regular gasoline is in Los Angeles, at $2.71, while Tulsa, Oklahoma has the lowest, at $1.72, according to an industry analyst quoted by the Associated Press. The price-tracking website GasBuddy.com says the average has dropped to $1.99 per gallon, the first time it’s been below $2 since March of 2009.

The state average climbed to $2.78 a gallon on Christmas Eve, up 13 cents in the past week after steadily falling since Labor Day. That’s compared with $2.01 a gallon across the U.S.

The reason is California only has a few refineries so when there are problems, there’s not much room for error, said Allison Mac, an analyst at GasBuddy.com. 

The Federal Reserve said it would raise its benchmark interest rate from near zero for the first time since December 2008, and emphasized it will likely lift it gradually thereafter in a test of the economy’s capacity to stand on its own with less support from super-easy monetary policy.

Despite the utilities’ campaign, the California Public Utilities Commission largely backed the solar industry, which had said the power companies’ proposals could have devastated its business.

The total for the 2015-16 tax roll, $5.2 trillion, is a 5.9 percent increase from the previous year’s $4.9 trillion and should generate about $57.3 billion in property taxes for schools and local governments, roughly $3 billion more than the current year’s levies. The state government also benefits because increases in school property taxes reduce the legal requirement for state aid.

Assessed property values in California have jumped six percent over the last year, according to new data released Monday by the state Board of Equalization. That means $3.3 billion in higher revenues for schools and local governments – and higher tax bills for homeowners.

Introduced by the League of California Cities, California State Association of Counties, and Association of California Water Agencies, the measure comes eight months after an appellate court struck down a Southern California city’s method of charging water users based on a tiered-rate system – essentially charging larger users a higher per-unit rate. . . In the case out of San Juan Capistrano, the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled in April that tired rates must correspond to the cost of delivering the service.

The median commute distance for people who work in San Francisco and earn less than $40,000 jumped from 9 miles in 2008 to almost 15 miles in 2013, according to a study by Zillow. The commute for those making more than $40,000 remained relatively unchanged over that period.