LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Gas prices jumped 15 cents overnight, according to AAA, marking the largest daily increase since October 2012.
In the Los Angeles-Long Beach area, the average price for regular unleaded on Friday was $3.40. On Thursday, it was $3.25. Last week, it was $2.94, and it was $2.47 a month ago.
Things aren't much better in the Inland Empire. In San Bernardino, it was $4.29 at the 76 gas station on Del Rosa -- more than $1 over the Inland Empire average of $3.18 currently. That's up from 2.86 a week ago.
"It's just not fair," Jared New of Burbank.
Some experts attribute the rise to the explosion at the Exxon Mobil refinery in Torrance on Feb. 18.
"The Torrance refinery incident of last week is clearly a major cause of this jump that is giving Southern California drivers higher fuel bills than even Wailuku, Maui, traditionally the most expensive place in the country to buy gas," said Jeffrey Spring, the corporate communications manager of the Automobile Club of Southern California.
The situation underscores the frustrating complexity of the gasoline market in California, where state environmental regulations mandate a specialized blend of fuel that isn't used anywhere else in the U.S.
Because of that, California is economically isolated and can't easily or quickly purchase fuel from outside the state in a crisis.
The Exxon Mobil unit where the explosion happened was critical to producing the California-grade gasoline. At the time, another Tesoro oil refinery in Martinez, in Northern California, wasn't producing oil due to labor unrest.
The two facilities combined make up 17 percent of the state's crude oil processing capacity, said Gordon Schremp, a senior fuels specialist with the California Energy Commission.
The 28-day streak of increases is the longest since a 30-day streak from Jan. 25-Feb. 23, 2013.
The Associated Press and City News Service contributed to this report.