The japanese Sierra Nevada mountain rainge seen from the June Lake Loop on October 13, 2021, close to June Lake, California. – George Rose/Getty Images
For Connie Lear, driving even her hybrid automobile is a luxurious she will be able to not often afford.
Lear lives in the rural city of June Lake, California, a picturesque neighborhood of 300 individuals close to Yosemite National Park and the Nevada state line.
June Lake is a part of Mono County, which has the highest average gas price in the United States.
“My husband and I were watching the news this morning, and it came on about $4 gas and I said, ‘Well, where are you? Ours is $7.50!’” she stated, citing the price at the solely gas station in her city. The Mono County average was $6.72 as of Monday, based on AAA.
Connie Lear will get round her small city of June Lake, California, in a golf cart as a result of she will be able to’t afford gas that sells in the city’s solely gas station for greater than $7 a gallon. The city is in Mono County, which AAA says has the highest average gas price of any county nationwide. – Courtesy Connie Lear
Like many rural counties throughout the nation, Mono County faces rising gas costs from the next price to move gasoline there, restricted demand and diminished competitors. But it’s additionally situated in the state with the costliest gas in the nation because of a mixture of taxes, charges, rules and the closure of many native refineries.
Gas costs are solely getting larger as the US-Israel conflict with Iran drags on, up $1.14 nationally since the begin of the conflict. In California, the price is $1.29 larger.
For Lear, she limits journeys to the nearest grocery retailer 20 miles away to as soon as every week. She makes use of a bicycle or golf cart as an alternative of driving to verify on the 42 trip leases she manages round city.
If she must refuel her hybrid Ford Explorer, she typically will drive 120 miles to cross into Nevada the place the gas was “only” $4.57 the final time she crammed up. Still, the price is the least of Lear’s worries. She’s involved excessive gas costs will hold away the summer time vacationers which can be essential to her city’s financial system.
She stated she is already noticing a decline in bookings.
People who used to order every week are actually reserving 4 or 5 days. Lear stated the identical factor occurred in 2022, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine spiked gas to a report $5.02 a gallon nationwide and far larger in Mono County.
“It seems like it’s going to be the same as it was then, maybe worse,” she stated.
The causes rural drivers pay extra
Small rural cities throughout the nation usually pay the next price for gas than extra populated metropolitan areas.
There are fewer low-cost gasoline retailers like Costco obtainable to assist drivers hold costs in verify. But getting gas delivered over lengthy distances can also be costly.
A tanker truck has to drive 4 and a half hours over 200 miles to ship gasoline from the closest wholesale terminal in the state to Mono County. That lengthy journey is expensive, significantly for gas station homeowners.
Just down the street from June Lake is the city of Lee Vining, the place Shelly Channel runs a Shell station. The signal exterior advertises $6.85 for normal gas. It was solely $5.69 earlier than the begin of the conflict in Iran.
Shelly Channel runs a Shell station in the city of Lee Vining, simply down the street from June Lake, California. – Courtesy Shelly Channel
Channel is a great-grandfather who began promoting gas in 1978 when it was solely 50 cents a gallon. He stated that regardless of all his years in the enterprise, the present gas spike doesn’t make any extra sense to him than it does to his prospects.
“It’s not like there’s any shortage of oil. I’m old enough to remember when there was rationing,” he stated. “There’s no rationale as to why the prices from the day the war started have just gone through the roof.”
Rural station homeowners additionally don’t promote as a lot gas – they could promote as a lot in a month as one in a metropolis or busy suburb may in a day. That means the mounted price of working a station is unfold over a a lot smaller variety of gallons bought.
Channel stated he held off elevating costs for the first two weeks of the conflict in Iran as costs soared nationwide. But after a gas supply on March 12, his first since the begin of the battle, he needed to increase his price $1 a gallon that day because of the larger wholesale price he was compelled to pay.
“My margin, my markup, is exactly the same as it was before this all started,” he stated.
In the summer time, he sells about 50,000 gallons of gas in a month. In November and December, “I’m lucky if I do 5,000.”
Those low volumes make it troublesome for rural station homeowners to be worthwhile, stated Tom Kloza, an impartial oil analyst who works as an adviser for Gulf Oil.
“If you can do 200,000 gallons of gasoline a month, that’s the sweet spot,” Kloza stated. “If you’re only doing 50,000, it’s tough, and boy, if you’re doing less than 50,000, it’s going to be really tough.”
California’s highest costs in the nation
Drivers are grappling with larger costs in rural areas throughout the United States. But these in California face a fair larger problem – the state has the costliest gas in the nation. The present average is $5.93 a gallon statewide.
California has the highest state gasoline tax, at 71 cents per gallon. Gas costs are derived from a wide range of parts: the price of crude, refining and transportation charges and taxes. But it’s the state’s environmental guidelines that result in a wide range of different prices.
There’s an extra carbon tax, distinctive to California, that may add one other 20 to 25 cents per gallon. And rules requiring cleaner burning gasoline can tack on an extra 25 cents.
Gas costs at a Shell gas station on March 30, 2026, in Los Angeles. The state has the costliest gas in the nation. – Mario Tama/Getty Images
The closure of multiple refineries throughout the state has additionally reduce the provide of home gasoline. A Los Angeles-area refinery closed in December, and a Bay Area one is because of shutter this month. That will depart the state with simply six refineries to serve 28 million California drivers.
New rules into account may add an extra $5 billion to $9 billion in annual prices to refineries that function in the state, based on Jodie Muller, CEO of trade commerce group the Western States Petroleum Association. These prices may pressure extra refineries to shut in the coming years, she stated.
That may make the state much more depending on imported gasoline. And these costs ought to keep elevated for a while, even when the conflict in Iran ends and oil shipments begin to circulate once more via the Strait of Hormuz.
California authorities blame hovering oil costs for the price hike at gas stations, noting that refinery closures “are not unique to California.”
“The price of crude oil is the biggest factor affecting gas prices, which makes the war in Iran the primary driver of price spikes at pumps in California and around the world,” stated the California Energy Commission in an announcement Wednesday.
But none of that’s high of thoughts for the 9,200 drivers who stay in Mono County.
Station proprietor Channel stated his prospects perceive he’s not the one getting wealthy off the rising price of gasoline.
“That’s not to say they don’t have a coffee and gripe about the price of gas hurting everybody,” he stated. “But they don’t direct it at me.”
Lear stated she likes dwelling in a quiet neighborhood and wouldn’t contemplate transferring from the city she’s lived in for 38 years. But staying there does current its challenges, particularly throughout gas spikes like this one.
“We do whatever we can think of so we don’t have to drive our car,” she stated. “We can’t afford to spend $7.50 to drive around town. It’s ridiculous.”
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