The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in San Diego County rose Tuesday to its highest amount since Oct. 9, 2023, increasing 1 cent to $5.947.
The average price has risen 40 of the past 41 days, increasing $1.34, including four-tenths of a cent on Monday, according to figures from the AAA and Oil Price Information Service. It increased 36 consecutive days, was unchanged Friday and resumed increasing the following day.
The average price is 5.7 cents more than one week ago, $1.261 higher than one month ago and $1.029 greater than one year ago. It is 48.8 cents less than the record $6.435 set on Oct. 5, 2022.
At a Chevron station on Park Boulevard, there was exasperation among drivers filling up. San Diego resident Robbie Holley had a message for politicians in Washington.
“Oil prices, Iran and everything going on right now, it’s just a mess, it’s just a mess over there and it’s messing us up and it’s messing everybody else up too, so the message is just clean up the Iran mess and get oil back, get it back down to where it should be, right?” Holley said.
Another driver filled up his Volkswagen Jetta with diesel. That price stands well above $7 a gallon. We watched as he put in about 13-and-a-half gallons and the bill rose to more than $105.
Prices were rising slightly in line with seasonal norms before the joint U.S./Israel attack on Iran on Feb. 28 sent oil prices higher and drastically accelerated increases at the gas pump.
The national average price topped $4 for the first time since Aug. 10, 2022, rising 2.8 cents to $4.018. It is 4.1 cents more than one week ago, $1.036 higher than one month ago and 85 cents greater than one year ago.
The national average price is 99.8 cents less than the record $5.016 set on June 14, 2022.
"Gasoline and diesel prices continue to climb to multiyear highs as the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz curtails the flow of millions of barrels of crude oil each day," Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, which provides real-time gas price information from more than 150,000 stations, said in a statement released Monday.
"The situation remains highly volatile and unpredictable, but upward pressure on fuel prices is likely to persist as long as global oil supplies are constrained by the continued disruption in the strait.
"Americans have already spent nearly $8 billion more on gasoline over the past month, a trend that poses growing risks to the broader economy, while surging diesel prices may begin to reaccelerate inflation."
