Californians are paying the highest gas prices ever for this time of year heading into the Labor Day holiday weekend, according to the Auto Club’s Weekend Gas Watch. The average price for self-serve regular gasoline in California is $4.39, which is unchanged from last week. The average national price is $3.18, up three cents from a week ago.
The average price of self-serve regular gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area is $4.40 per gallon, which is up a penny from last week, two cents higher than last month, and $1.17 higher than last year. In San Diego, the average price is $4.35, up one cent from than last week and last month, and also $1.12 higher than last year.
On the Central Coast, the average price is $4.35, which is one cent higher than last week, two cents higher than last month, and $1.19 higher than last year. In Riverside, the average per-gallon price is $4.32, which is one cent higher than last week, two cents higher than last month, and $1.14 higher than last year. In Bakersfield, the $4.35 average price is one cent higher than last week, two cents higher than last month, and $1.19 higher than a year ago today.
“After the first weekly price drop of 2021 last month in many areas, local prices rose slightly last week after a brief refinery outage, but so far do not seem to be affected by Hurricane Ida-related issues since no oil or gasoline is supplied to California from Gulf Coast refineries,” said Auto Club spokesman Jeffrey Spring. “Price increases all this year mean that Labor Day travelers will be paying the highest prices ever for this holiday, but the Auto Club expects that travelers will economize in other ways to cover that increased cost.”
The Weekend Gas Watch monitors the average price of gasoline. As of 9 a.m. on Sept. 2, averages are:
