California Diesel Pumps Max Out at $9.999
California Diesel Pumps Max Out at $9.999
The News
Diesel has broken its all-time price record, and in California it has broken the pumps.
Five gas stations in California posted diesel at $9.999 a gallon — the ceiling a standard four-digit pump display can show, according to data from GasBuddy.
GasBuddy petroleum analyst Patrick De Haan reported the readings. The specific stations were not identified.
Nationally, AAA put the average price of diesel at $5.98 a gallon, topping the record set in 2022. CBS News reported diesel has risen more than 60% over the past year.
The Numbers
$7.76 — California's average diesel price as of Sept. 9, according to the Energy Information Administration, up 55 cents in a single week.
$5.98 — the new national diesel average, per AAA.
98% — U.S. refinery utilization, leaving almost no spare capacity to absorb a supply shock.
24.1% — the August jump in diesel prices in Labor Department producer-price data, which accounted for more than a third of goods inflation that month.
Timeline
Diesel sets its previous national record during the last global fuel crunch.
Labor Department producer-price figures show diesel up 24.1% for the month, driving more than a third of goods inflation.
EIA data put California's diesel average at $7.76 a gallon, a 55-cent rise in one week.
GasBuddy reports five California stations at $9.999 a gallon, the maximum their displays can show. AAA's national average hits $5.98, above the 2022 record.
Reactions
"Diesel touches everything in the economy," an analyst told MarketWatch — the reason a fuel most drivers never buy shows up in grocery bills, rent of freight and construction costs.
Thomas Ryan, a senior North American economist at Capital Economics, said businesses are likely to begin passing the cost on to consumers within months if prices stay where they are.
President Trump has acknowledged that oil prices are unlikely to come down before the midterm elections.
Coverage split on the pump readings themselves: center-leaning outlets noted the five-pump count is crowdsourced and unconfirmed, while left-leaning outlets reported it as established fact.
What's Next
California regulators have subpoenaed data from five major refiners under the state's price-gouging law.
S&P Global Energy does not expect global oil output to return to prewar levels before the end of 2027.
The open questions: whether regulators find evidence of gouging at the outlier California stations, and how fast trucking and retail contracts get renegotiated and pushed onto consumers.
More
Diesel is the fuel of the supply chain — trucking, rail, farming and construction all run on it. That is why a diesel spike behaves differently from a gasoline spike: it lands on the price of nearly every physical good rather than just the commute.
Standard pump displays carry four digits, so $10-a-gallon fuel is a mechanical problem as well as an economic one. Stations that pass the mark have to reprogram or replace the sign.
Poll
What is driving record diesel prices?
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