Menlo Park gas station’s prices reach range some have never seen

By CBS Bay Area

A Chevron gas station in Menlo Park was empty on Sunday evening, with prices ranging from $7.49 to $7.89 per gallon. 

“It’s ridiculous. Yeah, I feel bad for my family members here. They drive all gas so,” Argenis Del Rio, who was dining out with family in Menlo Park, told CBS News Bay Area. 

Neighbors said the gas station, located along Avy Avenue and Alameda de Las Pulgas, is known to have higher prices. But they added that they have never seen prices that high. 

“They’re absolutely stupid. California has too high taxes, too many regulations, and too many things that drive the gas price up,” Fred, who was also dining out in Menlo Park, said. 

“Since the war began, prices have risen here in California by almost a dollar per gallon. It keeps going up. It was about 91 cents per gallon about four, five days ago. It’s creeping about a dollar more per gallon,” Paasha Mahdavi, the director of the energy governance and political economy lab at UC Santa Barbara, told CBS News Bay Area. “The damage that has been done to oil infrastructure in the Middle East, about a week ago, you couldn’t have necessarily said that. There could have been a quicker resolution to this and that would have meant prices come down.”

He added that the state is about $1.20 to $1.50 more expensive per gallon than the rest of the country. 

“The lack of competition that refineries face in the state, so, they’re able to capture a higher percentage of profits than refineries elsewhere in the country. We’ve seen analysis done by the state and by academics that show a mystery gasoline surcharge of 41 cents per gallon just in California,” he said. 

“As it stands, though, even if the war stopped today, it would still take several weeks, if not longer, for some of that production to ramp up,” Mahdavi added. 

While a possible state bill that would temporarily suspend the state gas tax could provide relief, the associate political science professor said it’s only shortsighted relief. 

“The bulk of the issue is the crude oil price. And so, once you take away gas tax, which is important for lots of reasons, it funds roads, and lots of infrastructure, it’s very hard to reimplement it,” he said. 

Jesse Nall, who is from Oakland, said he spends about $70 to fill three-quarters of a tank. 

“I do recall last year, the same tank would cost me about $55. Those little details, when you try to keep your budget at a fixed rate, it’s pretty noticeable,” he told CBS News Bay Area. “I don’t drive often. I try to avoid consuming fuel as much as I possibly can. As it goes up, I’m even more conscious of the fact that my costs are going higher and higher every month.”

And experts say high gas prices could continue into next year. 

“They could endure into 2027 if these activities continue and if more infrastructure is affected in the oil and gas industry in the Persian Gulf,”  Mahdavi said.