The war in Iran has caused a spike in gas prices that is hitting California consumers especially hard, according to data from the American Automobile Association (AAA).

AAA reports that in California, the most expensive US market for gas, the average price per gallon on Monday was $5.20, compared with $3.47 nationally. The national average climbed nearly $0.50 since the conflict began more than a week ago, while in the Golden state it rose by $0.55.

Since the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on 28 February, leading to intensifying violence across the Middle East, the price of oil surged to more than $100 a barrel for the first time in nearly four years. The conflict has damaged oil and gas facilities and stranded ships carrying roughly 20m barrels of oil a day in the Gulf.

About 20% of the world’s oil is shipped through the strait of Hormuz every day but the channel has essentially been closed for the last week.

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[–] 67 points 8 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 40 points 8 months ago

    Profit margins must be maintained.

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  • [–] 31 points 8 months ago
    [–] 15 points 8 months ago (14 children)

    Ha. Try 2.40/litre ($11/gallon) in Norway.

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  • [–] 7 points 8 months ago (9 children)

    True, but density, public transportation, social services, and electrification are very different in much of the US. Fuel prices hit differently depending on where you live in the world.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    True, our fuel prices are way higher here in Europe, but we have a solid public transportation network, we have walkable cities and in countries like Norway the EVs are the majority.

    From everything I've seen about US cities and American friends I talk to, for most people, if you don't have a car you can't get to work. That is a thought that is hard to process for Europeans.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    If you don't have a car you can't get to work

    This is it. This is the difference. Along with everything being spread out, and fuel efficient cars being a distinct minority. "Just ride a bike" is something I'd love to do, but I'd get killed by some monster-fueled purposefully stupid prick in a truck. And that person might get a ticket. The very idea of taking a bus or train to work is pure fantasy where I live.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Norway isn't dense. It has less population density than the US does

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

    True.

    I’m primarily talking about specific regions of the US, not the whole place. Many places in the US are famous for sprawl.

    Take a city like Huston, Texas. Triple the population of Oslo, but everyone is insanely spread out, and even city centers don’t feel particularly walkable.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (1 child)

    Fuel prices hit hard of you're a Norwegian living outside of the cities (which is the majority of Norwegians). You really need to have a car in the countryside, as both buses and trains are few and far between. There's still plenty of fossil-fueled vehicles out here. People keep them because they either can't afford to make the jump over to electric, don't trust the EV's to handle winter well enough, or because they're worried about the technological hurdle (Norway is an aging population).

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    US gallon is 3.78L. $9/gallon.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    Ah, you're right. My goodness, couldn't the Americans even agree with the rest of the world on make-believe silly-units?

    "While we can agree that a gallon should be the nice, round sum of 32 gills, I find it ludicrous that you define it as five fluid ounces. I'm putting my foot down. In the United States, it will be the much more manageable four ounces, which will be a different size to your ounces. Nyyyaanyyaanyanyanyaaa!"

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (1 child)

    You haven't had decades of anti-public-transit propaganda in Norway, I bet.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    Don't need the propaganda, we just need a completely Oslo-centric government that will happily spend money on public transit, as long as it's in Oslo. Pretty much all the governments have been like that for most of my life.

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  • [–] 15 points 8 months ago
    [–] 14 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Us$5 a gallon? That's almost Canadian prices. Just a little higher and that's our day-to-day.

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  • [–] 28 points 8 months ago (14 children)

    Pretty glad I drive an electric car right now.

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  • [–] 22 points 8 months ago (9 children)

    Only half joking, but all of the new data centers raising energy prices are unfortunately coming for you too. Still way cheaper than the gas equivalent though.

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  • [–] 36 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Jokes on you, I've got an electric car and solar panels. Fuck the grid!

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Man I wish I could do that, but I'd be fucked come winter.

    I currently have a fixed price deal. The price is not ideal, but it's bearable year-round and I don't use that much electricity in the summer when the market rate is cheaper.

    If I had solar panels and wanted it to be connected to the grid (so I wouldn't have to run them on a separate circuit and could also sell back the excess), I'd be forced to the market rate package. Which in the winter can get ridiculously expensive. And it's not like there's a lot of sunshine here in the winter. 6 hours from sunrise to sunset and it's cloudy most days - and if it's not cloudy, it gets super cold and electricity demand goes up even more.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago*

    Our household has solar panels, two EVs, and a heat pump located in the Midwest. We still have 1:1 net metering so its nearly the ideal conditions as far as energy harvest and economic landscape. I know this won't last, but I'm enjoying for the years that I can.

    We also have a separate deductive meter where we can get about 25% discount on electricity that charges the cars. We only use it during the cold months because car electricity is free during the rest of the year from solar.

    We have a small electricity bill in November, then big beefy electricity bills and for when the our location on Earth its tilted away the sun for the very cold months of Dec Jan, and Feb. March we get a bill but its about 1/10 of the cold months, and then usually electric bill until November again.

    With the installation of our heat pump we cut off our natural gas connection. So the only energy bill we have is electricity during the cold months. No natural gas bill, no gasoline bill.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    If it gets expensive, I can always get solar. Once you pay for the initial investment of the equipment, it’s basically free energy for decades.

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  • [–] 8 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    I want to say our estimated break even was about a decade at our current consumption. I definitely need to get more quotes and see what the market has to offer. It's 100% a bucket list item for me. My other hesitation is that I don't want to live in my state for another 10 years. I think that I'm probably stuck here, but I feel once I pull that trigger, I've sealed my fate. My family and my wife's are relatively near by, and while I'd move tomorrow if I could and budget for flights back, my wife does not feel the same.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    I want to say our estimated break even was about a decade at our current consumption.

    That calculation also likely assumes electricity prices stay the same for a decade. If electricity prices increase, your payback date arrives sooner.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    True. Something I hadn't taken into consideration. We've got a couple data centers coming up over the next couple years on my power grid. They're for sure going to increase costs.

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  • [–] 12 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    That is a brutal price to see. Wow.

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  • [–] 8 points 8 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 15 points 8 months ago

    Something you may have glossed over if you don’t live in California: March is when the state begins to the switch to “Summer-blend” (a mix of spealized petroleum with 10.5% to 15% ethanol) which is required to be available by April 1 and until October 31. The price of gas was going to increase regardless.

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  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Allowing for currency conversion it's USD8.23 / gallon here in Victoria, Australia.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago

    I passed a station that was over $5.50 on my way to a $5/gallon pump (it was just a block away, thank goodness for 7/11). I imagine that average is going to go WAY up.

    We destroy our land and will never reap the 'benefits'.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago

    Dang the summer blend fuel is gonna be north of $6 gallon then.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago

    Just paid $4.89, and that's at the cheapest gas station I know of for 20 miles. It's 5.50 ish around me for the most part.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago

    The Media: "Dear Leader gets tough with Iran! Victory is coming. But first the latest Taylor Swift news, and MARCH MADNESS!"

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago

    This is just the beginning. We are all paying Netanyahu's war tax.

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  • [+] 2 points 8 months ago (14 children)
  • [–] 11 points 8 months ago (12 children)

    So all the groceries and everything else that is transported around gets to get more expensive for everyone too?

    Why do you hate poor people?

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  • [–] 11 points 8 months ago (5 children)

    We can stop subsidizing fossil fuels and make EV purchasing affordable. We could even make public transit usable, if we spent $43M/hr on it.

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  • [–] 16 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Yeah and if my grandma had wheels she'd be the fastest hooker in her retirement home.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    I thought she’d be a bike, personally, but what do I know.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    Was omnibus when I was growing up which is funny because the term omnibus was already antiquated by then and outside of that one specific saying, nobody ever used that term, so I didn't even really know it's just a regular ol' bus.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago

    And you honestly believe that might happen during Trump's presidency? Right now we're worried about the rising prices in the here and now. Not what legislation we can pass maybe during the next presidency.

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  • [+] 1 point 8 months ago* (5 children)
  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    My sibling with two special needs children needs a larger vehicle to transport and live. They are as liberal as it gets and definitely didn't vote for Trump. Lots of big vehicle owners are tools and don't need them, but your generalizations also directly imply that those that truly need larger vehicles must also "take it in the teeth".

    Also, it's not just poorer people that suffer from the rising prices of goods. I'm in a relatively stable and good financial situation and our household is feeling it as well, we're just lucky enough that it's not crippling us. Keep in mind that there are lots of poor people that also didn't vote for Trump that you callously group with those that did.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    They're talking about people who don't need them. Like the big spotless pavement princess pickups.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

    That's not what they said. Same with poor* people. Like I mentioned their generalizations group everyone. If someone wants to make inflammatory statements, they should do so with specificity, otherwise they look hateful.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    Since Trumpenyahu's mad war I've been finding out that fertilisers, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, construction all rely on products derived from oil. So as much as its good to see fuel for cars going up. The price of absolutely everything is about to shoot up.

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  • [+] -10 points 8 months ago (7 children)

    So the preexisting difference in price between CA and the rest of the USA was bigger than three wars with Iran... CA voters are a mystery to me.

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  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    its also the state whose most aggressive with pushing EVs, which is also unaffected by these prices.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago

    You mean directly effected. 1.4% of vehicles in the US are EVs, so if 98.6% are powered by fossil fuels then everything that has to be transported will become more expensive.

    A tank of gasoline is the least of my concerns with spending money. It was less than $500 last paycheck for 2 weeks of food, which is much higher than it was last year. It was over $800 this paycheck.

    Fuck Dump

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Everything is expensive in California yet most people own no property and live in squalor because all of that money is just going to their overlords.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    The weather must be fucking AMAZING

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    Gas taxes pay for transportation infrastructure and environmental efforts, similar to some European countries. That at least goes to something, unlike gas prices going up due to pointless wars.

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