The price of crude oil is on a steady incline and is approaching $100/barrel. Why you ask? Because, the supply of oil is not matching the demand for fuel. Why you ask? Because on the supply side, Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest producer, has cut production by 1M barrels a day, and on the demand side, personal consumption in the post-COVID world and geopolitical forces have created robust demand.
We are all seeing the impact at the pump, especially in California where gas prices are $7.00/gallon in most communities.
As if that is not enough, on October 1st, the price of diesel jumped again due to an increase in the taxes the State of California collects. The sales tax increased from 34.5 cents to 50 cents and use tax from 9.0625% to 13%.