L.A. Gas Prices Rise After Hurricane

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Last week’s production problems at two major Bay Area refineries caused gas prices to edge back up in L.A. and the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina pushed prices throughout Southern California to record highs, said the Automobile Club of Southern California.


Hurricane Katrina’s assault on refineries in the Gulf Coast has caused the U.S. to lose production of about 42 million gallons of gasoline a day, equal to 10 percent of normal consumption, the Energy Information Administration said Friday. Last week, Shell and Tesoro refineries in Martinez, suffered through major problems that interrupted production.


The average price for regular self-serve unleaded gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area rose 6.1 cents to reach a record price of $2.855 on Friday from $2.794 one week ago. Prices had reached a new record high of $2.805 on Sunday. The price was $2.595 per gallon one month ago and $2.111 one year prior.


“We’re advising motorists not to top-off their tanks,” Auto Club spokeswoman Carol Thorp said. “With the price of gasoline rising, motorists can conserve gas by keeping their vehicle’s maintenance up to date, consolidating trips, car pooling, using mass transit and, for short trips, trying bicycling or walking.”


The Orange County area had the lowest average price in Southern California, gaining 7.3 cents to $2.847. The Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Lompoc area had the highest gas price, rising 5.2 cents to $2.938. All of the areas surveyed hit record highs on Friday, with Bakersfield experiencing the largest increase of the week of 10.5 cents.


The Weekend Gas Watch monitors the average price of gasoline as of 12:01 a.m. each Friday.

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