Back to $5 Gas
Nov. 30th, 2021 01:30 pm"$5 Gas Could Be Here Soon," some news article or another seems to warn every other day. In fact in California it's already here.
I was reminded of how our gasoline prices are higher than elsewhere in the country when I was traveling on the East Coast last week. Near my childhood home in Virginia, in the suburbs of Washington DC, the going price for gasoline was $3.25/gallon regular grade. Stations in some areas ran as high as $3.50. At the opposite end of the price spectrum I saw one station going for volume sales drop its price down to about $2.93 midweek.
The going rate of about $3.25/gallon held in many parts of Maryland I traveled through, particularly as I got farther away from DC en route to Harrisburg PA. Central Pennsylvania gas was noticeably more expensive, ranging $3.59 to $3.65 at most stations.
Back here in Silicon Valley gas is $4.69 - $4.89 per gallon at name brand stations. Independents run $.20 - $.30/gal cheaper, and the nearby Costco is only $4.19. But the base price in high 4s at name-brand shops mean that the price for premium grade fuel runs over $5. And while my town doesn't have the cheapest gas in the area, it's far from the most expensive. I can easily imagine towns in the Bay Area where even regular grade gas starts above $5 per gallon.
I was reminded of how our gasoline prices are higher than elsewhere in the country when I was traveling on the East Coast last week. Near my childhood home in Virginia, in the suburbs of Washington DC, the going price for gasoline was $3.25/gallon regular grade. Stations in some areas ran as high as $3.50. At the opposite end of the price spectrum I saw one station going for volume sales drop its price down to about $2.93 midweek.
The going rate of about $3.25/gallon held in many parts of Maryland I traveled through, particularly as I got farther away from DC en route to Harrisburg PA. Central Pennsylvania gas was noticeably more expensive, ranging $3.59 to $3.65 at most stations.
Back here in Silicon Valley gas is $4.69 - $4.89 per gallon at name brand stations. Independents run $.20 - $.30/gal cheaper, and the nearby Costco is only $4.19. But the base price in high 4s at name-brand shops mean that the price for premium grade fuel runs over $5. And while my town doesn't have the cheapest gas in the area, it's far from the most expensive. I can easily imagine towns in the Bay Area where even regular grade gas starts above $5 per gallon.