- California diesel prices hit record highs, with one San Diego station charging $9.99 a gallon as a global diesel supply crunch intensified.
- The spike reflects war-driven energy disruptions, low West Coast diesel inventories and California-specific market constraints that raised costs for businesses and consumers.
- Businesses are raising customer prices and absorbing some fuel costs, while market pressures persist and it remains unclear when diesel prices will ease.
At a fuel station in San Diego where diesel is retailing for $9.99 a gallon, Californians can take solace in at least this: In theory, prices can’t get worse.
An employee reached by phone at the Shell station in the city’s Serra Mesa neighborhood confirmed the eye-watering price as of Sept. 11 and said the fuel was still available. While the cost could at some point actually exceed $9.99, on most electronic gas station marquees prices can’t go higher because they’re constrained by three digits.
That station is an outlier compared to the wider San Diego area, but it illustrates a historic diesel crisis that’s gripping global supply chains, sending prices to records in the U.S. and turning the screws on California’s already tight market…