Diesel prices in California have climbed so astronomically high that some gas station pumps are now maxed out, physically unable to display the true cost of fuel to drivers.
Several Arco and Shell stations across the Golden State, including locations in Serra Mesa and San Jose, were showing diesel at $9.99 a gallon on Thursday, according to GasBuddy data. Patrick De Haan, the company’s head of petroleum analysis, confirmed that a handful of California stations had hit the highest price their dispensers are capable of showing.
“MAXXED OUT at $9.999!!” De Haan wrote in a post on X, sharing images of multiple stations that had bumped up against the display’s technical ceiling. He later admitted that some earlier reports of stations hitting that price limit were actually the result of pumps running completely dry of diesel rather than true price caps — a small silver lining, though little comfort to drivers.
The eye-popping individual station prices come amid a broader statewide crisis. California’s average diesel price hit a record $7.81 a gallon over Labor Day weekend, with San Francisco and Oakland running even higher at $8.23 and $8.02, respectively.
Nationally, diesel prices have also shattered records, with the U.S. average reaching $5.85 a gallon last week — surpassing even the painful highs seen during the 2022 energy shock following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
California’s notoriously aggressive tax structure is only making matters worse. On top of the federal government’s 24.4-cent-per-gallon diesel tax, the state tacks on its own 48.2-cent excise tax, plus a 13% sales tax that rises right along with the price of fuel. At $9 a gallon, that sales tax alone adds more than a dollar per gallon before local taxes are even factored in — and in cities like San Jose, where the general sales tax recently climbed to 10%, drivers are getting squeezed from every direction.
Experts say California’s isolated fuel market, which lacks pipeline connections to other major U.S. refining hubs, leaves the state uniquely vulnerable when global supplies tighten.
And supplies are indeed tightening. The ongoing wars in Iran and Ukraine have battered global diesel production. A major Saudi refinery was forced offline after a drone strike early in the Iran conflict, while Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries — paired with Moscow’s own decision to restrict fuel exports — have squeezed supply from multiple directions at once.
American refiners have ramped up production to fill the gap, but the widening spread between crude oil and refined fuel prices shows just how far global instability is now reaching into the wallets of ordinary Californians simply trying to fill up their trucks.
[READ MORE: Maria Bartiromo Breaks Silence With Emotional Message After Fox Exit]
