“You Can’t Make This Stuff Up” is written by Ed Ward. It is a feature column in the O&A Marketing News reporting on challenges, regulations, and trends in the petroleum marketing industry in the state of California.
Ed Ward has spent a career working in the California petroleum industry, starting as a technical services manager for a small distributorship on the Central California coast and moving to become its director of Regulatory Compliance. Ward then joined larger petroleum marketing companies based in Southern California and then Stockton, California where he served as Risk and Regulatory Manager for Valley Pacific Petroleum Services. His expertise with California business regulations have earned him the Deb Mattos Advocacy Award and, in 2023, the California Fuels & Convenience Association Lifetime Achievement Award. Following his retirement in 2023, Ward moved to Washington where he works as a consultant specializing in Environmental Risk and Regulations as well as sharing his perspective — “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up” — as an O&A Marketing News columnist.
Here are some recent highlights:
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April 2025:
Why Californians Pay More for Fuel Than the Rest of the U.S. -
February 2025:
The Financial Costs of California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard -
December 2024:
CARB's Clean Truck Regulations Meet California Realities -
October 2024:
The California Energy Commission is Given Unprecedented Power — without Legislative Oversight