The pain at the pump is back after a brief summer hiatus.
"I thought it was crazy. It's almost $7 a gallon now," said Eric Roussel, a visitor from San Francisco.
"I was pretty astounded. $6.20 is pretty high," said Barrett Mannetter, San Luis Obispo resident.
Mannetter told KSBY he spends about $100 per week on gas.
"It makes it pretty hard to afford to get around. I work in Los Osos, so it's a 15 mile drive, give or take, to get to work every day," said Mannetter.
AAA says there’s no clear end in sight.
"[This is] almost the worst one-week increase we've had this year," Marie Montgomery, an AAA spokesperson, said.
AAA says this is the sharpest increase in price they've seen since the Russia-Ukraine conflict started earlier this year.
"At the start of the Ukraine-Russia war, prices went up about seventy-seven cents in one week, and this week in Southern and Central California, [prices] went up about sixty-seven cents," Montgomery said.
Montgomery attributes the steep price increase to supply issues, power outages and delayed maintenance at oil refineries, causing them to not run at full capacity.
"Since that was not anticipated we are not getting imports shipped to us from overseas which is what we anticipate when our refineries are not working," said Montgomery.
Drivers say there is only one solution: cutting back by driving less.
"We love road trips, and I don't think we'll have road trips as long or as often anymore," said Roussel.
"Mostly just driving less, walking if I can," said Mannetter.
Prices will likely continue to climb throughout the week, Montgomery told us.
"It's looking fairly likely that we are going to set new records, even maybe in the next few days," said Montgomery.
AAA says they don't forecast prices improving any time in the near future due to low inventory, and things will likely continue to get worse before they get better.
The company does recommend downloading the free AAA app to find the lowest gas prices in your area.
