A gas station in the San Francisco Bay Area is charging customers almost $8 per gallon for its higher octane supreme level of gasoline ahead of Memorial Day weekend.
A photographer at KGO News found a Chevron gas station in Menlo Park, California, offering regular gasoline to customers at a price of $7.25 per gallon, with its supreme-grade gasoline hitting a whopping $7.75 per gallon.
A customer told KGO why she shops at that specific gas station. “This place is the most convenient for me,” customer Alisa Arunamata told the outlet. “When you have a bunch of kids and you’re running around, you don’t have a lot of options.”
“It’s insane I’ve never seen prices this high before,” said Arunamata, who lives in Menlo Park.
In San Mateo County, the regular unleaded gasoline is sold for $6.29 per gallon. Across the state, gasoline has gone up almost $2 per gallon over the last year.
Across the country, the price of gas is $1.61 higher than it was a year ago.
The average price for regular gasoline in the United States increased 33 cents during the past several weeks. Industry expert Trilby Lundberg of the Lundberg Survey said on Sunday that the price spike comes in the midst of increased crude oil costs and short supplies of gasoline.
The lowest average of gas is in Tulsa, Oklahoma, being sold for $3.92 a gallon, while the highest is in the San Francisco Bay Area, where it is $6.20 per gallon, according to Fox 5 Atlanta and AP’s reporting on Sunday.
The survey also showed that the average price of diesel gas went up over several weeks — an increase of 9 cents, reaching $5.66 per gallon.
A Bay Area News Group report from earlier this month found that Democratic Governor of California Gavin Newsom is anticipating it will be October before Californians get gas rebate checks.
Under the proposed original plan, registered car owners would be available to get $400 per car, limited to $800 for two vehicles. However, Newsom and other lawmakers still have to decide who will be eligible to receive the money.
Earlier this week, Democratic President Joe Biden received criticism when he was asked about the “enormous high gas prices” impacting American families.
“Here’s the situation,” Biden answered in part. “And when it comes to the gas prices, we’re going through an incredible transition that is taking place that, God willing, when it’s over, we’ll be stronger and the world will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels when this is over.”