Here we go again: SLO County has the most expensive gas in the United States

Kaytlyn Leslie
·2 min read
2

Here we go again.

The San Luis Obispo County metro area once again had the most expensive gas in the nation Wednesday, with an average cost of $5.03 per gallon, according to GasBuddy.com, which aggregates national gas prices using user-submitted data.

Locals were among the only drivers in the United States paying more than $5 per gallon on average, according to the data.

This isn’t unusual for SLO County, which is often home to the most expensive gas in the U.S., thanks to its distance from supply centers, high real estate prices and heavier traffic, coupled with already high California prices.

This week however, gas prices in Washington state were giving those in California a run for their money.

According to GasBuddy, the average cost of a gallon of gas in Washington was $4.84 per gallon on Wednesday, compared with California’s $4.81.

This coincides with Washington passing a cap-and-invest program that requires businesses to buy “allowances” or permits to cover the amount of greenhouse gas emissions they produce.

In a GasBuddy blog post on June 14, analyst Patrick De Haan said this is likely temporarily pushing up fuel prices in Washington state.

Back in San Luis Obispo County, prices have been trending up in recent months. Still, drivers are paying significantly less than they were a year ago, when prices skyrocketed in the initial months of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

According to AAA, which also tracks national gas prices, local costs peaked at $6.64 per gallon on June 14, 2022. AAA uses slightly different metrics to report gas price trends, so its records and GasBuddy’s numbers can vary slightly.

AAA also reports data by county, while GasBuddy focuses primarily on metropolitan statistical area — a slight distinction that can leave out data from more rural areas.

According to AAA, San Luis Obispo County was not the most expensive county for gas in California. That title went instead to Mono County, where gas averages $5.95 per gallon as of Wednesday.

SLO County, in fact, ranked only sixth for gas prices among California’s counties.

However, its metro area — which includes Atascadero, Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo — continued to hold the distinction of most expensive of California’s metro areas with an average cost per gallon of $5.15 as of Wednesday, according to AAA.

In the coming days, gas prices are likely to stay in a lull or “drift slightly lower,” AAA said in a blog post June 15.

That could change around the Fourth of July holiday weekend, when higher demand could push prices up.