California, Gas | featured news

For the fourth straight day, California has a new record for gasoline prices, but the rise has apparently lost nearly all of its momentum.

Gasoline prices in California rose to another all-time high on Sunday after passing a four-year high a day earlier, according to AAA....

California's average gasoline prices rose 13 cents to $4.26 in the second quarter of 2012, a 3.1 percent increase compared to last year's second quarter average price of $4.13 according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Even as oil prices drop to some of its lowest levels at $88 per barrel.

A surprise surge in gasoline prices is taking some of the fun out of summer. The national average for a gallon of gas at the pump has climbed to $3.67, a rise of 34 cents since July 1. An increase in crude oil prices and problems with refineries and pipelines in the West Coast and Midwest, including a fire in California, are mostly to blame.

The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in California drops 4 cents to $3.90. Nationally, the average declines 6.1 cents to $3.652, up 91 cents from a year earlier. Pump prices fell again during the last week in California and nationwide, the Energy Department said Monday, but an analyst warned that the decline may level out substantially above last summer's averages.

Residents returned Sunday to the ruined hillsides of their suburban San Francisco neighborhood, three days after a natural gas pipeline exploded into a deadly fireball.