Gasoline prices edge higher in California
Gasoline prices are at an all-time high for the week following Labor Day and the end of the traditional summer driving season.
The average price of regular gasoline in California was $3.946 a gallon Friday, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. That was an increase from $3.888 a gallon a week earlier, and it was 91 cents a gallon higher than the price a year earlier.
The latest average gasoline prices in the state topped the previous post-Labor Day high of $3.859 a gallon in September 2008.
Nationally, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline reached $3.659 on Friday, up 1.2 cents compared with a week earlier and nearly 98 cents higher than a year earlier. The latest U.S. average also was a record for the week following Labor Day.
Experts said not to expect much relief in the coming weeks.
“You’ll see some price drops, particularly after we start to switch over to the winter blend gasolines that are cheaper to make than summer blends, but there is too much demand for refined fuels in the rest of the world for prices to drop very far in the U.S.,” said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service.
