Newswise — We've been enjoying lower gas prices but according to a study by Berkeley-Haas Prof. Severin Borenstein and his colleagues, prices will increase about ten cents/gallon after January 1, 2015. That's when California's cap-and-trade law ramps up on gasoline distributors to be responsible for greenhouse gases emissions from (burning) fuel that they sell.

Borenstein is an energy economist at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and a researcher at the Energy Institute at Haas. The California Energy Commission recently appointed Prof. Borenstein to its new Petroleum Market Advisory Committee. The committee held its first meeting on December 16.

Read more about the study in his blog post. See full study.Read Borenstein's December 13 op-ed on California's cap-and-trade effect on gas prices after January 1.

He is available until January 1 to speak with reporters. You may reach him via email: [email protected]