NorCal Residents Reel From Highest Gas Prices In The Country

CALIFORNIA — Bay Area drivers continued to reel as gas prices soared to new records over the weekend.

On Saturday, the average price of regular gasoline in California rose to more than $6 a gallon for the first time in the state’s history, according to AAA.

Drivers in the Bay Area and rural Northern California saw some of the most eye-popping prices in the entire country. The average price in the United States as of Tuesday was $4.67, compared to $6.19 in California.

Here are the average gas prices per gallon in Bay Area counties as of Tuesday, according to AAA.

• San Francisco: $6.49.
• San Mateo: $6.47.
• Marin: $6.47.
• Napa: $6.47.
• Sonoma: $6.43.
• Alameda: $6.34.
• Santa Clara: $6.34.
• Contra Costa: $6.30.
• Santa Cruz: $6.25.
• Solano: $6.24.

Drivers all over the state reported changing lifestyles as a result.

Jacob Krasnodemsky, who lives near Sacramento, spent Memorial Day at Folsom Lake with his family. He told KCRA3 that his family used to travel to the lake twice or three times a week. Now, they travel once every two weeks. If gas prices climb into the $8-10 range, the family will have to stop going to the lake altogether, Krasnodemsky said.

Prices approached that level in some rural counties in Northern California. In Mono County, just south of Lake Tahoe, gas cost an average of $7.05 per gallon, the highest price of any California county. In the state’s northwestern corner, Humboldt and Del Norte counties ranked just below that, with average prices of $6.70 and $6.60 respectively.

Residents of rural counties typically need to drive much farther distances than city dwellers just to pick up basic necessities, and they have little or no public transportation options. Food and fuel are often more expensive than they are in cities because of increased shipping costs, according to a report in The Los Angeles Times. There are typically fewer gas stations, so gas station owners can set higher prices.

One woman in Bridgeport, a small town in Mono County, paid $125 to fill up her pickup truck, The Times reported. That hurt in a county where the average annual per capita income is $37,103, according to census data.

In San Francisco County, where gas is on average 50 cents cheaper per gallon, average annual per capita income is $72,041.

“I just see people feeling very discouraged right now,” Barbara McCovey, a driver for United Indian Health Services, who drives patients to medical appointments, told The Times. “It’s getting to the point where people say, ‘I can’t afford to go to work.’ Especially if you have a car that’s not good on fuel economy.”

In southern cities, the situation is not much better. A Chevron station in downtown Los Angeles made news for charging $8 per gallon for regular gas, leading to accusations of price gouging. That’s higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, the New York Post pointed out. In Los Angeles County, average gas cost $6.20 per gallon, according to AAA.

In a statement to Fox 11 Los Angeles, Chevron denied any price gouging and laid out some of the reasons that California gas was — and has been for decades — unusually expensive.

"In addition to the price of oil, other factors include the competitive conditions in the marketplace, the higher cost to produce gasoline to the specifications required by the California Air Resources Board, costs associated with fuel distribution, local, state and federal taxes, California carbon-compliance costs, recent inflationary pressures, and fixed costs of doing business that are often higher in California relative to other states (e.g., the cost of commercial real estate)," Chevron said.

California lawmakers were divided on how to address the issue. In March, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a plan to give a $400 debit card to every registered vehicle owner and up to $800 to drivers with more than one vehicle. Other Democrats proposed a plan to give $400 rebates to all residents, regardless of vehicle ownership.

In March, Democrats voted down a Republican-sponsored bill to suspend the gas tax of 51 cents per gallon for half a year. Democrats argued that suspending the gas tax would starve the various programs and projects that it funds and would help oil companies rather than drivers.

On Tuesday, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Los Angeles) introduced a bill in Congress to suspend the federal gas tax and require oil companies to pay for infrastructure projects instead.

Schiff referenced a study from the Center for American Progress that found that in the first quarter of 2022, five major oil companies — Shell, ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron and ConocoPhillips — brought in 300 percent more profits than they did in the first quarter of 2021.

“This is unacceptable,” Schiff said Tuesday. “Our workers and families should not be padding big oil’s bottom lines.”

While politicians bicker and bargain, see here for tips from AAA on how to save money at the pump.

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