California Gas Station With $9.99 Diesel Exemplifies Fuel Crisis

By Will Kubzansky

Sep 12, 2026 (Bloomberg) –At a fuel station in San Diego where diesel is retailing for $9.99 a gallon, Californians can take solace in at least this: in theory, prices can’t get worse.

An employee reached by phone at the Shell station in the city’s Serra Mesa neighborhood confirmed the eye-watering price as of Friday and said the fuel was still available. While the cost could at some point actually exceed $9.99, on most electronic gas station marquees prices can’t go higher because they’re constrained by three digits. 

That station is an outlier compared to the wider San Diego area, but it illustrates a historic diesel crisis that’s gripping global supply chains, sending prices to records in the US and turning the screws on California’s already tight market. 

Statewide, average diesel prices rose above $8 a gallon in California on Friday according to the American Automobile Association, a record. Nationally, average US diesel prices rose above $6 a gallon for the first time ever this week as the war in Iran and Russia-Ukraine conflict roil energy flows. 

Read More: Oil Drillers Resort To Trucks As Key California Pipeline Idled

That leaves businesses that rely on diesel, which is versatile enough to power moving trucks, heavy equipment and generate electricity, in a predicament. The increased fuel costs are cutting revenue and forcing business owners to raise prices, as energy-driven inflation flows downstream. Consumers, meantime, have been bitten by years of higher prices and are now reeling from skyrocketing gasoline costs stemming from the Iran war. 

QShark Moving, based in California, saw its monthly fuel bill for its all-diesel truck fleet rise from around $8,200 last August to $16,000 this August, said Vlad Kandybovich, the company’s owner. 

But while those costs nearly doubled, the company only increased its fuel fees for customers by around 17% — from $60 to $70 typically. In a hyper-competitive space for moving, the company can’t afford to raise fees any more, Kandybovich said.

“Our customers are already struggling to pay, because California’s very expensive, and they’re also paying gas prices,” Kandybovich said.

California consistently has the highest fuel costs in the US, owing to a lack of pipelines carrying fuel into the state, lost refining capacity and the highest state-level gas taxes in the country. It also uses more renewable diesel, fuel made from oil and fats, than any other state in the country — making the market more eccentric and raising refiner costs. 

Even so, the prices are particularly galling at present, and it’s unclear if the problem will abate soon. Diesel stockpiles are at their lowest seasonal level since 1998 on the West Coast, according to US government data, and benchmark futures are trading near $5 a gallon.

That’s made business more costly for Jose Bedoya, owner of Leaf It To Us, an arborist service in San Diego. Both Bedoya’s truck and woodchipper run on the fuel. The daily price of filling both has risen to roughly $150, he said. And that’s on top of the price of gasoline, which powers the rest of his equipment — including around 10 chainsaws.

“I’m definitely not making the money I’m used to making,” he said.

As a result, Leaf It To Us has started raising prices — especially when quoting new customers for the first time. But some returning customers have also stopped using Leaf It To Us for their tree maintenance, Bedoya said, noting that the price of annual work has jumped by $300 in some cases.

“They can’t justify it, and I don’t blame them,” he said.

© 2026 Bloomberg L.P.

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