Oil prices are down, yet gas prices are up. Expect $5 a gallon or more throughout the summer, even if oil prices crash.
Today, AAA has reported that the official average price for a gallon of gas in San Diego is $4.737, about a penny more than the price was last year on the same day.
If there was ever proof that we are getting gouged, then perhaps, this is it: The price of oil today is $78.50 a barrel, more than $15 a barrel less than the cost of oil last year.
Now you may be asking, “How is it that the price of oil has dropped $15 a barrel (or 37¢ a gallon), yet my gasoline prices are higher than they were last year?
That’s a good question. It is also a question that lawmakers and State Law Enforcement should be asking, too, because there is no apparent market reason for the delta.
How bad could it get?
Lats year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the entire West Coast saw average prices for regular unleaded of $5.87 a gallon in June, with an average price of $582 sustained throughout the month of June. If past is prologue, we can expect to gas prices exceed $5 a gallon by “April Fuel’s Day,” 2023, with prices remaining above $5 through November of 2023.