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LOS ANGELES () — Gas prices in Southern California are continuing to climb, with one expert saying he thinks it’s possible we could see $8 a gallon gasoline in SoCal by the end of the year — and not just because the war in Iran.
Prices at one gas station in Riverside were up 50 cents since Monday.
The price of oil has soared to more than $90 a barrel, and one expert says California gets two-thirds of its oil from foreign sources.
“Two weeks ago, you could have leased a tanker for $130,000 a day, that same tanker is going for $400,000 a day,” said Professor Michael Mische, USC Marshall School of Business.
Mische says it’s not just the war in Iran to blame for the soaring prices, but various regulatory policies in California.
“Over the last five years, we’ve lost about 22% of in-state gasoline production,” Mische said.
Mische is predicting more than $8 a gallon for everyone in California. Recently, a top official at Chevron said that even more refineries could soon shut down.
“That’s a shot across the bow, you lose those guys, you’ve now lost over 55% of production in California. Then what are you going to do?” Mische said.
“Probably the biggest thing that’s going to happen is inflation, we’re going to see more inflation, and with inflation comes more volatility, it’s just what’s going to happen,” said Sasha Kottmeier, UBS Financial Services Inc. “We were expecting 50,000 new jobs, but instead we got a negative 92,000 jobs, so that’s not what we were expecting, and when you have this much global volatility combined with some bad number coming out for the U.S., it’s going to definitely put some pressure on the markets.”
Gas prices in SoCal are continuing to climb, with one expert saying he thinks it’s possible we could see $8 a gallon gas by the end of the year.
One gas station in downtown L.A. is already selling gas at $8.21 a gallon for regular gas. While not typical, the rising gas prices are affecting even rideshare drivers.
“It affects my job. The gas is very expensive. A lot of riders they don’t even tip anymore,” said Dane Pilipina, a rideshare driver.
With the average gas prices of gas in Los Angeles tipping near $5 a gallon, rideshare driver Alejandro Moran says that any significant increase will strain his wallet.
“I see $6, $7 a gallon, it’s going to hurt. But we don’t know what’s coming up,” Moran said.
The average price of gas in Southern California could hit $5 this weekend.
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