Gasoline Prices

Retail gasoline prices jumped higher over the last week in California and across the rest of the nation, adding to what was already a record start for a new year. The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in California rose 6.5 cents to $3.696 a gallon, shattering the old record set a year ago of $3.344 a gallon, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. The AAA numbers are the averages of daily credit card receipts collected from more than 100,000 retail outlets by the Oil Price Information Service.

It's not much relief, but Southern California gasoline prices dropped for the third week in a row as the pain at the pump continued to rise in many other parts of the nation. That's according to the Automobile Club of Southern California's weekly Weekend Gas Watch. The maddening thing for motorists, of course, is how price declines seem to happen so slowly while price increases seem to leap ahead at alarming rates. “Given the big wholesale fuel price declines in California, it's unclear why we aren't seeing more significant price drops at the pump,” said Auto Club spokesperson Jeffrey Spring.

Californians had the worst year imaginable for gasoline prices in 2012, averaging a record $4.028 for a gallon of regular, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. That shattered the old record, set last year, by a whopping 21.3 cents a gallon. The jump was so big that it even surprised people who review fuel prices on a daily basis. "I can remember when the California average for the year in 2008 was $3.525 and we thought we would never see it go that high again," said Marie Montgomery, spokeswoman for the Automobile Club of Southern California.

When you're looking for the best prices for gasoline, it helps to be in a well known metropolitan area. If you live in a very small town or in rural Alaska, it can be nearly impossible. Here are a few options, including one that had to be created with the help of Google Maps when a senator from Alaska realized that no one knew about the staggering prices some of his constituents were paying. Energy Information Administration's Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update . Pros: federal government's official record of average prices; rich historical database dating to 1990; excellent for spotting long-term trends.

Crude oil prices closed above $90 a barrel for the first time in two years, raising the likelihood that U.S. gasoline prices will reach an average of $3 a gallon for the first Christmas ever. California already far surpassed that point this season ? the average pump price was $3.28 Wednesday, according to the U.S. Energy Department. Experts said it's heading for $4 and more in parts of the state. The rising gas prices have experts worried about how the slow-recovering economy could be affected.

Retail gasoline prices are falling, but slowly. Even worse for consumers during a weak economic recovery, the pump pain remains far above the cost of filling up a tank a year earlier. The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in California dropped 2.1 cents a gallon in the last week to $3.923, according to the Energy Department's weekly survey of service stations, released Monday. A year earlier, the price was $3.005. Nationally, prices were down 6 cents to an average of $3.601 a gallon.

The grumbling you've been hearing at gas stations isn't your imagination: It's the sound of motorists looking at pump prices that have been rising toward record highs for this time of year. The average retail price of a gallon of gasoline Friday was $3.083 nationally and $3.342 in California, up substantially from $2.709 nationally and $3.032 in California a year earlier, according to AAA's daily survey of fuel prices. The Energy Department's weekly gasoline price survey, released Monday, showed similar results.

Pump prices in California and around much of the nation continued their ever-so-slow crawl higher over the past week, the Energy Department said Monday. But analysts said gasoline costs might be kicked into a higher gear by a resurgent oil market. The average cost of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in California rose 1.5 cents to $2.355, according to the government's weekly survey of filling stations. Nationally, the average increased 2.9 cents to $2.