Diesel prices set new record in California; gas surpasses $6 mark in Los Angeles County

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The average price for a gallon of gas has surpassed the $6 mark in Los Angeles County, and diesel prices also set a new record for California.

On Tuesday, the average price for diesel reached $7.45 a gallon, according to AAA. That's an all-time high for the state.

The statewide average price for regular gas stands at $5.88, but drivers in L.A. County are paying an average of $6. Of course, prices could be even higher than that at specific gas stations.

Meanwhile, the national average for regular gas has crossed the $4 mark.

GasBuddy, a website that helps drivers find the cheapest gas prices, says the rise in the price for gas is making history. Experts say the spike in gas prices is the largest monthly increase on record.

Here are the average prices for regular gas in other Southern California counties:

Orange County: $5.93
Riverside County: $5.84
San Bernardino County: $5.86
Ventura County: $5.95

Impact on truckers

For many truck drivers who work for companies won't necessarily be impacted. But for truckers who are independent operators, the increase in diesel prices comes out of their own profits.

One truck driver told Eyewitness News said he usually pays $5,000 a month for diesel. This month, he says he's paid over $9,000.

GasBuddy petroleum analyst Matt McClain added that as the price of diesel goes up, so does everything else. He used a single product packaged in a plastic container that you would purchase at a grocery store as an example.

He said that plastic container now costs more because crude oil costs more.

"And oh by the way, it has to be shipped... To get the ship from Asia to here now costs more," McClain said. "Now we have to load it onto a semi tractor-trailer. Well, the diesel that you have to put into the semi tractor-trailer now costs exorbitantly more. You have every layer that costs more. This is more, far more than just the local gas tank in our own vehicle... this is, across the board, a ripple effect that is going to have far-reaching impacts in the economy and for financially-sensitive families, especially."

Another complicating factor is home-heating oil, a lot of which was used in other parts of the country that saw extremely cold temperatures. That supply was already low before the war in Iran started.

When asked if the Strait of Hormuz, which carries 20% of the world's oil supply, were to hypothetically open within a day, McClain said it would take weeks for the cost of diesel to significantly drop.