SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – No matter what you drive, whether it's a van or motorcycle, filling your tank with gas isn't cheap right now.
"It's quite expensive. This van isn't very good on gas. So, filling it up costs $115,” Kevin Freiberger said.
"It's not fun. I never go on road trips. Luckily, I work downtown and live around the corner from here. So, I drive round-trip about 5 miles a day,” Emily Dowling said.
"I had a 2015 Nissan, man. Usually, it would be like 45 bucks — now it's like $70. That's a pretty significant change,” Anthony Gonzalez said.
But relief could be on the way. This week, Governor Gavin Newsom sent a letter calling for refiners to pump out the less expensive winter blend gas ahead of schedule.
Usually, it's released at the end of October.
While the high gas prices might be putting a squeeze on people's wallets, AAA Southern California says the early release of winter-blend fuel should help drop the prices.
"It is a cheaper to produce blend because it has different ingredients in it that are more cheap, generally speaking. And what happens during this time of year is that the refineries start transitioning to producing that winter-blend of gasoline,” Marie Montgomery, a spokesperson for AAA Southern California, said. “So, they already have some ready to go. So now we'll be able to use both that and whatever summer-blend they have left. So that is going to overall increase amount of supply."
The winter blend fuel is expected to drop the price of a gallon by about 25 cents.
"I'm sure all of us around here would find that really helpful,” Gonzalez said.
While $6.24 sounds incredibly high for an average, it's not the highest regular gas has been in San Diego County.
Last October, we hit our highest recorded average for regular gas of $6.43.
