2018 Starts With Gas Price Increases

Gas prices continued upward for the second straight week in most areas as oil prices reached a two-year high point, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California's Weekend Gas Watch. The retail statewide average is $3.11 a gallon for regular unleaded, two cents higher than last Thursday.
 
The average price of self-serve regular gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area is $3.16 per gallon, which is three cents more than last Thursday, four cents lower than last month, and 32 cents higher than last year. In San Diego, the average price is $3.14, which is four cents higher than a week ago, three cents less than last month, and 32 cents more than this time last year. On the Central Coast, the average price is $3.16, which is one cent higher than last Thursday, five cents lower than last month, and 31 cents higher than last year. In Riverside, the average per-gallon price is $3.10, which is four cents higher than last week, four cents less than last month, and 34 cents more than at this time last year.

“We closed out 2017 with a statewide annual average price of $3.01 – the second-lowest annual California average price in the last five years and the third-lowest in the last decade,” said Auto Club spokesman Jeffrey Spring. ”There’s a good chance that drivers will spend more to fill up in 2018 than in the last couple of years, just based on the additional 12-cent state sales tax that was imposed on gasoline Nov. 1.”

The Weekend Gas Watch monitors the average price of gasoline. As of 9 a.m. on Jan. 4, averages are: