With fuel prices rising at a relentless pace, some drivers around San Diego are coming up with unusual strategies to scrape their way from one trip to the pump to another.
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Managers of the Petromerica gas station on 16th Avenue and F Street say a few customers come to the counter with coins.
No, not bitcoin — actual coins.
“Like $1.50 in quarters,” said station owner Issa Meamari. “Yes, some people are desperate. They want just to move from their place to just around the corner. I’ve never seen that before.”
Earlier this week, one customer bought $3 of gas — with pennies.
“He brought me six packs of pennies that he had collected for like two months,” Meamari said. “Every penny counts.”
The average price for regular-grade gasoline is poised to surpass $6 a gallon in the San Diego area and according to AAA, the average price for diesel fuel Wednesday hit an all-time for area, reaching $7.75 a gallon. That breaks the previous record of $7.72, set in April.
Prices have gone on a tear since Feb 28, after President Donald Trump authorized air strikes against Iran. The hostilities prompted the Iranian regime to choke off transit through the Strait of Hormuz, the vital shipping channel in the Middle East, where 20% of the world’s oil exports normally pass through.
After a precarious truce broke down earlier this summer, attacks have escalated and so have oil prices, which lead to higher prices at the the pump.
San Diego gas prices have jumped 28 cents per gallon in the past month, according to AAA data, and diesel has gone into overdrive, soaring 83 cents in the past 30 days.
Since the start of the war, the average price in San Diego has climbed $1.29 for gasoline and $2.72 for diesel.
“I guess we’ll have to wait a little longer and see if anything works out,” Laurie Wright of Golden Hill said while fueling her Hyundai SUV. “But it’s killing me because I’m in caretaking and I have to drive to different people’s residences all the time and the cost of gas is putting a big dent in my income.”
Asked if the surge in gas prices would make her consider buying an electric vehicle, Wright said, “I’m going to drive this car until it dies.”
While gassing up her 2004 Honda, Aja Harmon of Kearny Mesa shook her head as the digits on the pump whizzed by.
“I can’t even fill up my damn tank anymore,” she said. “Lately, the most I can do is like half a tank.”
Harmon tries to stretch her fuel budget by shopping for stations that offer the lowest prices. The Petromerica station she used Wednesday morning posted prices 80 cents a gallon cheaper than another station a little more than one block away.
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“I’d rather drive than take the bus but, yeah, I think the prices need to go down,” Harmon said. “It’s ridiculous.”
Gas prices have been rising at roughly the same rate across the country, but since the California fuel market is more restricted, drivers in the Golden State feel the impacts more acutely.
AAA’s average price in the U.S. stood at $4.22 on Wednesday. That’s $1.66 lower than California’s statewide average of $5.88, which is the highest in the nation.
While most drivers focus on gas prices, economists and fuel analysts keep a close eye on the cost of diesel.
“Diesel’s the backbone of an economy,” said Andy Critchlow, head of energy news at Dow Jones Energy, “especially in the United States where agriculture is such a major sector.”
Farm machinery relies on diesel, which is also the fuel of choice for big rigs, rail stock and marine shipping. When the price of diesel prices rises, it has a ripple effect throughout the economy, driving up prices at grocery stores, retailers and other businesses and industries.
In addition to the fuel crunch in the Middle East, diesel supplies have dwindled as the war between Russia and Ukraine drags on.
Russia is a major source of global diesel fuel and a spate of drone attacks by Ukraine on Russian refineries led the Kremlin to ban international sales through Jan. 31, 2027.
The resulting squeeze in supplies have driven the cost of diesel far beyond the already-high prices for gasoline.
Critchlow, who is based in London, told the Union-Tribune he does not expect fuel prices to stop rising until international tensions recede.
“It’s hard to predict when (the flow of supplies) will return to normal, if ever,” he said. “So for the consumer in San Diego, for the consumer in California, they’re really kind of caught in the eye of the storm.”
The futures price for Brent crude — the international benchmark for oil — cracked the $100-per-barrel mark on Wednesday as tensions escalated. Iran’s government said it attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz while U.S. forces sank five Iranian oil tankers.
“The move towards and back above $100 Brent is reflecting a market that increasingly has to change its view on how long the Middle East crisis will continue to curb supply from the region,” Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, told Reuters.
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