Auto Club: Gas Prices Jump For Second Week

Editors Note: Weekend Gas Watch distribution time is changing to Thursday afternoons starting next week. Look for it at about 1 p.m. PST each Thursday beginning on April 9. The week-to-week data will remain consistent.

 

(LOS ANGELES, April 3, 2009) – Gas prices rose by about a penny a day throughout the Southland over the past week in what may be the start of the annual springtime price increase, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California’s Weekend Gas Watch.

The average price of self-serve regular gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area is $2.242 per gallon, which is 6.7 cents more than last week, two cents higher than last month, and $1.38 less than last year. In San Diego, the price is $2.280, which is 6.8 cents more than last week’s price, four cents above last month, and $1.38 lower than last year. On the Central Coast, the average price is $2.344, up 6.8 cents from last week, two cents above last month, and $1.41 below last year. In the Inland Empire, the average per gallon price is $2.244, which is 7.3 cents higher than last week, three cents more than last month, and $1.38 less than last year.

“We usually see a price increase in the spring, and this year is no exception,” said Auto Club spokesperson Jeffrey Spring. “In addition to the usual factors that typically push up springtime prices, we’ve also just experienced a one-cent increase in the gasoline sales tax. Another factor that could impact prices in the near term is the potential closure of some local gas stations that have not yet complied with air quality requirements to retrofit their pumps with lower-emission nozzles.”

The Weekend Gas Watch monitors the average price of gasoline as of 3:07 a.m. on April 3.

(A downloadable gas price chart in Microsoft Word is available.)