Madison Aument
With 91.9 KVCR News, I'm Madison Aument. This is Economics I.E. where we talk to experts from the Inland Empire to help take the temperature of the region's economic situation. Today we're speaking with Gianella Ghiglino with the American Automobile Association about gas prices. So Californians are used to spending a lot on a tank of gas. What's the average price of a gallon of gas in Southern California right now? And how does that compare to a year ago?
Gianella Ghiglino
So we don't have exact Southern California numbers, we have it based on regions. So we have the California gas price, right now the current average is about $5.31. So that's for California and in different regions, like, you know, Bakersfield and Los Angeles, they have different. We don't have those exact numbers. So a year ago, the average was actually $4.81. So we're, we're a little higher than last year.
Madison Aument
So despite being a little higher than last year, those prices are trending downward. How much have those prices dropped in recent weeks?
Gianella Ghiglino
Well, they've been dropping significantly. So a few cents, or a cent minimum, a sudden, like almost every single day, we can't predict. So we can't sit here and say, Oh, my god, yeah, they're gonna keep climbing down. Typically, what we see is when gas prices increase, the decrease is a lot slower. So we don't see anything rapid, you know, like a 40, 45 cents less within a week, you know, it's a very slow climb down. But what I can say is that we are seeing the refineries in California are actually over producing. So that's a good thing for people at the pump. Also, we are seeing that more people are going to be actually hitting the roads for Memorial Day and late May and just going into the that's kind of officially when the summer season starts, and more people are going to be getting gas and going to be on the road and increase in traffic. So, you know, with the gas prices climbing down, we definitely see this as a good space for this time, this period of time right now, because like I told people a month ago, gas prices, this isn't the highest it's ever been. This is typically normal for this time of year.
Madison Aument
What do gas prices look like in the Inland Empire?
Gianella Ghiglino
So right now the coverage average in Riverside County is about 590. And a month ago, it was about 526. So that's a significant difference. And then a year ago it was $4.77. So we're not at last year's numbers, but we have the prices have decreased and there's also different gas gas stations that have different prices. So what we always tell people is to do the research and to Google what gas stations have the lowest price because this is an average.
Madison Aument
That was Gianella Ghiglino with the American Automobile Association. Join us again next Monday for Economics IE. You can find this segment on our website at kvcrnews.org/econie. Support for this segment comes from the Nowak family. For KVCR News, I'm Madison Aument.