Gas in the morning is best

On May 6, San Diegans may have seen the past 20-day gas price run-up come to an end. Gas prices began to rise sharply, for the second time this year, on April 16. In the last round, prices went up 66 cents per gallon, topping off at $3.767 for regular gas.

Gasbuddy.com reported Chula Vista’s Optima station on Orange and Third Avenues was the county’s low-price leader at $3.39. In North County, Escondido’s C Stop on West Fifth Avenue at South Center City Parkway was second, only 3 cents higher.

Not one major-branded gas station placed in the top 15 lower-priced stations. But five Costcos, of the chain’s ten county locations, did make the lowest list.

Pacific Beach’s 76 station on Garnet Avenue at Mission Bay Drive remains the highest priced, at $4.59, some 20 cents higher than any other station in the county.

With gas prices appearing to have stabilized around the state, Californians still pay the highest price for gas in the country due to regulation and taxation.

Just as when gas shot up the first time this year, from almost $2.00 a gallon in January, oil companies have blamed the usual suspects: a refinery explosion in Torrance, labor troubles in Northern California refineries, switching to California’s more expensive summer blend, and unrest in the Middle East. However, according to industry experts, the continuing low price per barrel of oil, and a glut on the world oil market, negate all the excuses.

Some good news may come July 1st, when the state will lower gas excise taxes by about seven cents a gallon, based on a completed formula in which the state’s motorists were “over-taxed” when gas prices fell sharply last year.

Since December, this writer has had several gas price reports published in the Reader. While researching his stories, he’s discovered the following that, in a rapidly raising gas price market, buy gas in the morning. Oil companies want to take advantage of daily profit and will raise their prices by noon. In a lowering price market, stations compare their competition in the morning and usually lower prices after 2:00 p.m.