Gas Prices Soaring — Find the Cheapest in Mill Valley

In Marin and across California, residents awoke Friday to find that gas prices had increased significantly overnight by as much as 20 cents. The average price of regular gas across the state rose to $4.49 a gallon — the highest in the nation. On Monday, Oct. 1, the California average was $4.18.

The Bay Area average is even higher, at $4.52 a gallon. The cheapest gas in Mill Valley Friday was $4.27 at the ARCO station on Shoreline Hwy. in Tam Junction and $4.35 at the Arco on Redwood Hwy., according to GasBuddy.com. The highest price for gas was at the Chevron stations on East Blithedale Ave. and in Strawberry, where a gallon of regular is $4.89.

While gas prices have spiked around the nation, refinery outages and pipeline problems have added to woes in California, causing a decrease in supply coming out of California's refineries, including the Chevron refinery in Richmond. 

Among the recent disruptions were an Aug. 6 fire at a Chevron Corp. refinery in Richmond left one of the region's largest refineries producing at a reduced capacity. A power failure in Southern California has affected an Exxon Mobil Corp. refinery, and a Chevron pipeline that moves crude to Northern California also was shut down, according to the Associated Press.

This time 10 years ago, in 2002, the average price for gas in California was $1.55 a gallon, according to EnergyAlmanac.ca.gov. Last year, it was $3.82 a gallon.

How will you cope with the increase in prices? Will you drive less? Will you use alternate modes, like a bike? Will you carpool to work? Share your thoughts in the comments below.