Average Gas Price Passes $4 Per Gallon In Los Angeles County

March 25, 2011 6:50 AM

(credit: AP/Paul Sakuma)

LOS ANGELES (CBS/AP) — The average price for a gallon of self-serve regular unleaded gasoline in Los Angeles County has passed the $4 mark for the first time since Aug. 19, 2008.

The average price is 3.3 cents higher than a week ago, 33.9 cents above what it was one month ago, and 90.3 cents greater than it was one year ago, according to figures from the AAA and Oil Price Information Service.

Oil prices moved up closer to $106 a barrel Friday as political upheaval in the Middle East and signs of strong global demand kept crude near two-year highs.

By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for May delivery was up 17 cents to $105.77 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 15 cents to settle at $105.60 on Thursday.

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Average Gas Price Passes $4 Per Gallon In Los Angeles County

MB man

Can someone please explain why when the price of oil was $147 per barrel gas prices were far lower than they are now when the oil price is just over $100 per barrel

Eat me

Because they can & the US government allowed it. And because our Government too busy getting their head stuck in the sand in Iraq, Afghan, & Libya.
Zac

The value of the US dollar has dropped and as it continues to drop the price of gas will keep going up for us trade in your pennies for gold and silver.

MB man

Thanks zac but both the price per barrel and price per gallon are in $ at the same time and thus how would currency value change effect one and not the other

Duh!

Also, Obama halted oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico when he failed to put oil booms around the exploded well before it became a natural disaster (he waited almost a month before giving the order). So no new wells means no new sources of oil. With instability in the Middle East there is concern that there will not be enough oil.

One thing you can do is reduce your driving and save on gas for a few weeks. Gasoline has a relatively short shelf life. As stockpiles of gasoline go up the oil companies will lower prices to move the gasoline out. Law of supply and demand.
Saber 1

Sell our goods for the same price as they sell oil to us. OPEC is holding the USA hostage. Libya sells there oil to the UK, so I really don’t get why it is effecting our prices. We should be drilling in the USA, however, the left wing tree huggers are stopping it. Fair trade never developed, wheat food and medicne for the same price of oil, simple.

Lou

good news less traffic less drunks driving.
tastelikechicken

its time for obama to get some of his share of that “wealth” that he promised to ….spread around.

Duh!

You’re supposed to “hope” he is going to spread it around, when in actuality he plans to do no such thing.

ILLEGALS

HIGHER GAS PRICES = SLIGHTLY LESS PEOPLE ON THE ROAD = LESS TRAFFIC
Lick Me

Nothing to worry about higher gas prices unless you’re making minimum wage or strap for $$$$. it is still cheaper than Europe.

If yall complaining bout gas prices being too high now, just wait until the peak of the driving season.

No doubt it should reach at least $5 a Gal.

Duh!

You do know that the increase in minimum wage also drove up gas prices (not to mention all the other price increases at places like the super market, McDonalds, etc.)? Where do you think the money comes from to pay a higher minimum wage? The middle class bears the brunt of the wage increase as they did not get an increase which effectively gave the middle class a pay cut. (think about it – I hope I don’t have to explain it to you)

Cal State Econ Minor

That’s a classic beginning econ error. Let’s take a fast food worker as an example. If minimum wage goes up, he gets a little bit more money. But labor is only about 1/5 of the cost of that business. The workers in most of the industries that supply and deliver to the business already make over minimum, so there is no wage-caused price increases there.

However, the owner / manager of the food joint or gas station will raise prices as a way to increase his / her profits, and blame it on higher labor costs. Other businesses (often completely unaffected by increased minimum wage) will likewise take that as an excuse to raise their prices.

Finally, there is briefly a small increase in the purchasing power of low-wage employees, so there is a small increase in demand (and therefore prices) for goods that appeal to those workers.

The majority of the price increases you see after minimum wage rises are simply opportunistic profit-taking, and have nothing to do with minimum wage.

I suggest you go back and fully read Adam Smith’s treatise “The Wealth of Nations” … you will quickly find that it doesn’t really support a lot of the ideas that people claim it does.

BikeRider

The whole thing is a sham. The cost per barrel goes up a penny, and the price at the pump will show an increase by NOON that same day… But if it drops $20 a barrel in a day, when does that take effect?? Weeks, maybe months down the line, if at all… I knew I should have invested heavily in foreign oil!!
bdj

This is price gouging at its best. Has the flow of oil to the US decreased? Has the acutual cost of producing gasoline, not including the inflated cost of oil, increased? I think not. This is just one way for the oil companies to make more money!!!