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Sticker shock as California gas prices pass $6 per gallon

Image of a gas station sign with prices above six dollars per gallon.
Karl Mondon, Bay Area News Group
Gas prices at a downtown San Jose gas station on May 4, 2022.

The average price of a gallon of gas has officially surpassed $6 for the first time in California — and U.S. — history.

The Golden State set a new record Wednesday with an average per-gallon cost of $6.05, though the price climbed as high as $7 in remote Mono County, according to AAA. The national average, meanwhile, was nearly $1.50 cheaper at $4.56 per gallon.

Gov. Gavin Newsom — apparently sensing that skyrocketing inflation rates might top rising COVID rates on many Californians’ list of concerns — pivoted from vaccines to the soaring cost of living while speaking Wednesday at a Bakersfield clinic after receiving his second booster shot.

  • Newsom: “We are proposing an $18.1 billion additional package of relief
    … to address the pressures, the cost pressures, the inflationary
    pressures, that everybody’s feeling. … We recognize the world we’re
    living in, the anxiety and stress so many people are facing. But this
    state is better positioned than any other state to address those issues
    head-on, and we look forward to making real on these promises … by finalizing budget negotiations with the Legislature and getting those checks out.”
  • Senate Republican Leader Scott Wilk of Lancaster tweeted: “To use Gavin Newsom-style lingo, CA Democrats have left CA’s most vulnerable in petrol purgatory by dangling the promise of relief. Republicans have a plan to provide it NOW” by suspending the gas excise tax.

Copyright, 2022 CalMatters