Four-Dollar Gas Looms for North Bay Drivers

The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Sonoma County County is inching closer to $4, a price much of the rest of California is already paying.

The average price of regular gasoline in California jumped 22.8-cents in the past week to a statewide average of $3.904, according to the state Energy Almanac.

The Wall Street Journal reported the average price at the pump in the San Francisco area was $3.93 earlier this week, up 21 cents from late January. The price of a gallon of gas has already topped $4 in Southern California, averaging $4.03 on Tuesday, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report.

The spike in gas prices was traced back to the usual suspects: refinery problems, high crude prices and the costs of converting production lines to California's summer gas blend, the Mercury News reported.

In Healdsburg, the cheapest gas is at the Valero at the Dry Creek exit ($3.86 on Friday morning, according to Patch Traffic). Most gas stations were still pricing fuel below the state average, currently $4.02 a gallon of regular and rising, according to Gasbuddy.com. The national average is $3.54.

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