My Mobil now $6.32.

And it seems we’ve hit $7.50 around here. Yee haw.

Sam's Club $5.85 / $7.84 for diesel
Costco $6.05

Ouch!
California is a beautiful place... but I wouldn't want to have to fill my tank there.
It's mostly around $4.09 here but a bit south I can find it for $3.69

If California prices were taken out of play, the national average would be much lower than the current $4.41.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: egregore,

When I worked in California 2002 to 2005, there were 22 refineries at the beginning and 21 by the time I left. Today, there are 12 refineries. California wasn't just a refiner for itself as historically it has been an exporter to Arizona and Nevada. Way too many CA residents believe in NIMBY and don't want emissions from something that benefits someone else.

The CA politicians and Newscum bragged as last two refineries (one in LA suburb and one in San Francisco suburb) closed in the last 2 years. Old landlocked refineries surrounded by neighborhoods (there are safe distances for setbacks of new processing equipment to the public) and having to participate in a cap & trade emissions scheme and the final nail in the coffin occurred as the State passed minimum gasoline inventory laws (i.e. the government telling a private business how much inventory they need to keep in their "store"). CA always had lower days of inventory than rest of country because of the temperate climate is almost always conducive to logistics.

Stanford, the environmentalists, politicians, etc. argue that they didn't need the refineries and can manage on imported gasoline. Doesn't work when there is a global disruption in crude oil (e.g. Strait of Hormuz) and global disruption in gasoline and diesel (e.g. Ukrainians drones striking Russian refineries on average once every 6 days in 2026). Now, they get to bid against Europe because the Europeans are also not self-sufficient and depended on Russian diesel.

Oil and Gas industry argues that you can't run a long-term business in an environment with constantly changing regulations requiring capital investment and producing a boutique fuel (i.e. CARBOB gasoline and CARB diesel different than rest of US). On top of that, politicians have done things like pass regulations that can only be met following one company's patent and require the other refineries in state to pay licensing fees to their competitor (e.g. the original mandate that put removed MTBE and put ethanol in CA's boutique gasoline required paying Unocal for their technology).

Speaking of Stanford, here is a nice piece of drivel written by them in 2025 :

1-year later and there "pump prices will not be significantly affected as California continues to transition away from fossil transportation fuels" is already false.

Wrote the paper as if 2 refineries were closing in future, but geniuses didn't even know one had been closed 8 months when they wrote their article.

Argues that environmental laws don't affect drilling. BS! While I was a resident a multi-billion dollar deal collapsed where the federal gov't granted offshore leases in 36 tracts in federal waters. California's massive bureacracy of never ending environmental impact studies and lawsuits killed it.

notice how all of the environmental economics position papers comes from Stanford's law school not their economics school or science school. It's almost as if lawfare drives the environmental movement.

---

Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:
Ouch!
California is a beautiful place... but I wouldn't want to have to fill my tank there.
It's mostly around $4.09 here but a bit south I can find it for $3.69

A pathetic silver-lining to all of this is Chase's Freedom Flex card was offering 5% cash back during Q3 (Jul-Sept) on gas purchases, while filling-up sucked there was a sliver of benefit.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
If California prices were taken out of play, the national average would be much lower than the current $4.41.

It’s the perfect scam. No one is at fault. The oil companies rake in billions. They blame politicians. The same oil companies lobby (with money) the politician's they blame. The politicians cash the checks and blame the greedy oil companies. Win win. Remember it’s not “technically” gouging so it’s ok. And if you say anything about it, you are just too angry to get understand.

Up next, we are going to hear that the oil companies WOULD NEVER lobby politicians using cash through campaign contributions, or infusing NGOs, foundations, and other forms of political money laundering. N E V E R!

$4.30 in my area.

I paid 5.89 for 87 on Thursday at the off brand place I use. I saw a Shell station yesterday advertising premium at 6.79. Geez.

I can’t seem to find the like button for jljones’ post…

Just paid $4.19. Still not happy.

$4.49 at all three stations in my town.

Question: Due to current gasoline prices, are any of you who were Top Tier devotees, now buying discount gas?

Ohio suspended state taxes on gasoline today.
Paid $4.599 for premium at Shell an hour ago.

Doesn't matter the cost, I always buy premium from Shell. If Shell isn't near me, then I'll locate a top tier station to get premium.

My cars need it. I've tried midgrade and the performance drop and mileage drop are not worth it.

quote:

Originally posted by 6guns:
Question: Due to current gasoline prices, are any of you who were Top Tier devotees, now buying discount gas?

Nope. Luckily have a Marathon pretty much across the street from Sam’s and they stay pretty close to Sam’s Price.

We’re down about a few cents. Thankfully not paid over $4 yet.
Down to $3.75 today

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:

quote:

Originally posted by 6guns:
Question: Due to current gasoline prices, are any of you who were Top Tier devotees, now buying discount gas?

Nope.

+1

3 exits to my neighborhood, and on the way out go past 4 top-tier stations and 1 station with generic additive (aka minimum gov't std). I could drive an extra block out of my way to two additional stations with generic additive.

Also, top tier station is closest one to my office.

My truck was manufactured in March 2016, runs like a top, and doesn't cost me any money besides fluids and normal Nissan non-gasoline related flaws (e.g. it eats batteries in less than 30 months). No way I'm saving $0.06 per gallon and jeopardizing that.

I haven’t needed to drive my 6.7 Powerstroke for a while but had to fill up yesterday…$6.16/ gal.
The last time I filled it up diesel was about a buck less.

Yesterday paid $5.49 for premium at Shell. Haven't filled my diesel pickup since June. Cutting back on the RV trips cause of fuel costs. Looks like I'll be cutting back on all traveling for a bit. Wonder if it will ever go down or is this the new standard?

Despite the negativity I’m in EV bliss currently.

Haven’t been to a gas station in 3.5 years.

quote:

Originally posted by 6guns:
Question: Due to current gasoline prices, are any of you who were Top Tier devotees, now buying discount gas?

Nope. My Honda is a 1.5 turbo direct injection. I will only use top tier in it. Costco is where I get my gas, they're generally 20-30 cents cheaper per gallon and they're top tier.