The land of liberal politics, electric cars and strict pollution controls might seem like an odd place to drop $1 billion into a 115-year-old oil refinery. Chevron Corp sees an entirely different landscape in California: a uniquely isolated market, closed to new competitors, where the price of gasoline can skyrocket when even one refinery goes down. The company plans to make a fortune here – in part from the expected misfortunes of rival refineries in the state, who after Chevron’s renovations will have older technologies and potentially more frequent outages. The $1 billion investment will go into Chevron’s refinery in Richmond, an industrial city northeast of San Francisco. Analysts said the renovations, started this summer and scheduled for completion by 2019, will likely make the plant more reliable than the 13 other refineries operating in a […]