{"id":28005,"date":"2026-05-01T08:56:01","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T08:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=28005"},"modified":"2026-05-01T08:56:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T08:56:01","slug":"gas-prices-surge-past-6-in-california-as-middle-east-conflict-fuels-uncertainty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=28005","title":{"rendered":"Gas Prices Surge Past $6 in California as Middle East Conflict Fuels Uncertainty"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Reading Time:<\/span> 4<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

(The Center Square) \u2013 California Thursday officially exceeded an average gas price of $6 a gallon for the first time since the start of the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran.\n<\/p>\n

Have you taken your place on the wall?<\/h4>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The new high came just one week after a short-lived drop in the cost of a gallon, according to\u00a0AAA<\/strong>. Various gas stations in California have been near or at the $6 mark for several weeks, but AAA said the average price was hovering below $6 a gallon. That changed on Thursday when AAA reported an average of $6.01 in California, up 16 cents from one week ago, with Mono County along the Nevada border at $6.95.\n<\/p>\n

At the same time,\u00a0Nevada<\/strong>\u00a0saw the average price hit $5.13, up 17 cents from one week ago.\n<\/p>\n

Colorado<\/strong>\u00a0rose to $4.25, up 29 cents in one week, and\u00a0Arizona<\/strong>\u00a0was at $4.67, up six cents from April 23.\n<\/p>\n

Drivers throughout the Southwest are seeing some of the nation\u2019s highest prices amid the conflict in Iran, which began Feb. 28. The average U.S. gas price has gone up nearly $1.50 since the start of 2026.\n<\/p>\n

California consistently has had the nation\u2019s highest gas average for several years, and that remained the case on Thursday as the\u00a0entire country<\/strong>\u00a0deals with spikes in prices during the Mideast conflict.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really unpredictable situation the way that things are emerging,\u201d said Patrick De Haan,\u00a0Gas Buddy head of petroleum analysis\n<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the direction for gas prices is going to be very significantly impacted by the conditions moving forward \u2013 whether the Strait [of Hormuz] is closed or reopened,\u201d De Haan told The Center Square Thursday. \u201cIt\u2019s very hard to predict.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Despite what AAA called a \u201cbit of relief at the pump\u201d just last week as the average price per gallon neared $4, gas prices have surged once again across the U.S. The average gas price nationally was\u00a0$4.30 a gallon<\/strong>\u00a0Thursday, up 27 cents a gallon from one week ago, with\u00a0WTI Crude<\/strong>\u00a0oil prices having recently rushed past $100 once again. The result is more uncertainty over gas prices.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was an overnight shift of about 11 cents,\u201d AAA Northern California spokesperson Doug Johnson told The Center Square of the first spike earlier this week. \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s the market reacting to the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday saying it would leave OPEC.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The United Arab Emirates is one of 12 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the oil cartel that heavily influences the global price for oil.\u00a0OPEC\u00a0<\/strong>says it\u2019s one of the world\u2019s largest oil producers.\n<\/p>\n

The fluctuation of prices is \u201cshowing destabilization in the oil markets, and anytime there\u2019s any sort of destabilization, as we saw in the conflict in Iran, that can have an impact on prices at the pump locally,\u201d Johnson said.<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

There is still some distance to be covered before the national average reaches the all-time high of $5.02 per gallon, set in summer 2022. But four months ago, the average price was $2.82.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cStable national average to start the year, lowest since 2021,\u201d read the\u00a0AAA<\/strong>\u00a0headline at the time. Since then, the average price of a gallon of gas has increased by $1.49.\n<\/p>\n

While less visible to consumers, the biggest impact of the sharp rise in gas prices this year could be felt from the near all-time high price of diesel.\n<\/p>\n

The current average gallon is $5.50, which was $3.52 in January according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The all-time high of $5.82 was set in the summer of 2022.\n<\/p>\n

Johnson said that two Bay Area California cities, San Francisco and San Rafael, broke an all-time national record earlier this month by breaking $8 for a gallon of diesel.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. economy is powered by diesel from trains and trucks to tractors, so the elevated price of diesel is going to impact the economy in a pretty negative way here in the weeks ahead as prices remain just below their all-time record highs,\u201d De Haan said. \u201cThis is likely to lead to a rise in inflation here in the months ahead.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

With summer nearly here and Memorial Day on May 25, many Americans are still expected to take road trips and flights despite the higher fuel prices, according to AAA. Along with checking that your car is fully serviced and running smoothly, Johnson said driving speed can have a major impact on fuel efficiency.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cFuel economy peaks at around 50 miles per hour on most cars, and then as you start to drive faster, it decreases,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cSo if you drive the recommended speed limit, you can actually increase your fuel economy between 7-14%.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n

How are you praying about this? Share your thoughts and prayers below.<\/h4>\n

This article was originally published at The Center Square. Photo Credit: Erik Mclean on Unsplash.<\/em>
\n \n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: 4 minutes (The Center Square) \u2013 California Thursday officially exceeded an average gas price of $6 a gallon for the first time since the start of the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran. Have you taken your place on the wall? \u00a0 The new high came just one week after a short-lived drop in the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[5080,929,940,5701,3582,2803,4560,3400,307],"class_list":{"0":"post-28005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-prayer","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-conflict","10":"tag-east","11":"tag-fuels","12":"tag-gas","13":"tag-middle","14":"tag-prices","15":"tag-surge","16":"tag-uncertainty"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}