Gas Jumps Above $5 in California

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Feb 20, 9:35AM EST

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Thirty-nine of the gas stations with the highest prices in America, based on a gallon of regular, are in California. So it is not unusual that one of the few states with a price above $5 is there. The Chico’s station in South San Francisco has a price of $5.02

Two other stations with gasoline prices above $5 are an anomaly. Outside the Disney theme parks in Orlando, and on the way to the airport, they appear to be a “last stop” for drivers. The Sun Coasts Station in Orlando has a price of $5.95. The nearby Shell Station in Lake Bueno Vista has a price of $5.99.

Most of the stations with high-priced gas in California are in and around San Francisco or near Los Angeles, in Thousand Oaks, Studio City, Santa Clara and Pomona. Among all states, with the exception of Hawaii, California has the highest price on average of any state at $2.33, against a national average of about $1.75, according to GasBuddy.

Oil prices just dropped sharply to $29.72. A year ago, the price was nearly $65 a barrel. A main reason for the drop in gasoline prices is the sea of available oil, due in part to a flood from Saudi Arabia, and perhaps to falling demand as the global economy slows. Despite the loud protests of other OPEC members, the kingdom seems intent to keep pumping.
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Oil inventory is not the only factor. Proximity to refineries is also an issue. The average gas price in states near the huge refineries south of Houston and on the Gulf of Mexico, which itself is dotted by deepwater oil drilling platforms, are some of the lowest in the nation.

Gasoline taxes by state are another factor. The average nationwide is $0.48 per gallon, according to the American Petroleum Institute. California has the fifth highest gas tax in the United States at $0.59 a gallon, which is among the reason gas prices are so high across the state. Residents face gas prices at the high end of the national average, if only for that reason.

24/7 Wall St. recently analyzed states with the highest and lowest gas taxes.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.