Friday Fuel-up: Mixed Signals at the Gas Pump

The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in the Inland Empire rose today for the 15th consecutive day, increasing a half-cent to $3.791.

The average price in Riverside and San Bernardino counties has increased
13.6 cents over the past 15 days, including two-tenths of a cent on Thursday,
according to figures from the AAA and Oil Price Information Service.

Prices in Palm Desert have been seen from the mid $3.60s.

The average price is 6 cents more than one week ago and 1.3 cents higher
than one month ago but four-tenths of a cent less than one year ago.

"With oil prices still hovering around $90 a barrel, there was still some upward pressure on gas prices in the last week,'' said Jeffrey Spring of the Automobile Club of Southern California. "However, prices in some California markets have ticked downward or stayed steady in the last day or two, so it's hard to know what the next week will bring.''

The price of a barrel of benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude on the
New York Mercantile Exchange rose 42 cents to $89.39 on Thursday.
Crude oil costs account for two-thirds to three-quarters of the price of
a gallon of gasoline, said Tupper Hall of the Western States Petroleum
Association, a trade association representing oil companies in six western
states.

For the lowest gas prices in Palm Desert updated daily, click our "commute" tab at the top of the page.