California Diesel Nears $7.71 a Gallon as U.S. Sets a Record

A Montebello trucking manager says filling his fleet went from about $1,200 in April to $1,800 now.

The national average price of diesel hit a record $5.85 a gallon on Friday, September 4, 2026, while California's average climbed to about $7.71. The figures come from the AAA motor club, reported by the Los Angeles Times. California set its own high earlier in the war, at around $7.75 in April.

Greg Dubuque, general manager of a trucking fleet based in Montebello, told the Times that the cost of filling his trucks in California has gone from roughly $1,200 in April to about $1,800 now.

“It’s a dramatic impact, especially for us smaller companies,” he said.

Big national carriers hedge, Dubuque said — locking in fuel at a fixed price ahead of time. His 40-truck fleet doesn't. It pays what the pump asks.

That gap shows up at the docks. Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, told the outlet that more than two-thirds of the cargo moving through the port travels by truck, and that of the roughly 1,200 trucking companies doing business there, more than half are small or midsize firms he described as seriously struggling.

Seroka tied part of the squeeze to the war between the United States and Iran: cargo pushed off the Suez Canal and routed around the southern tip of Africa spends longer at sea and burns more fuel. Domestic supply has thinned as American refiners send fuel oil to overseas buyers.

AAA's numbers show how fast the climb came. Diesel rose 7 cents overnight and 24 cents over the week. It's up 48 cents in a month and $2.14 from a year ago.

In Madera, in the Central Valley, almond grower Jay Mahil of Creekside Farming told the Times his diesel bill has risen 40% over the past twelve months. Harvest runs on diesel — the shakers, the tractors, the trucks hauling bins out. Mahil said he buys when the market dips, but the depots often run dry on those days, so he's keeping less fuel in his tanks than he'd like.

Refrigerated and frozen food is the most exposed, Nick Vyas, a supply chain professor at the USC Marshall School of Business, told the Times, because diesel powers both the cold storage and the truck. Grocery prices are already ticking up, and Vyas said they're unlikely to fall back to prewar levels once fuel steadies.

California pumps usually run above the national average because of state taxes and environmental rules, Vyas said. Because about 40% of goods imported into the United States come through the San Pedro and Long Beach ports, the state's energy costs ride out into the rest of the country's supply chain.

Not everyone reads the record as an emergency. Christopher Thornberg, founding partner of Beacon Economics, noted that the 2008 diesel peak of $4.74 a gallon works out to about $7.20 in today's dollars, and the 2022 peak of nearly $5.82 to about $6.56.

“Sure, it’s a shock from where it was six months ago, but from a long-run perspective, once you control for price growth, it’s not a big deal,” Thornberg said.

The politics are less forgiving. AP-NORC polling cited in the Times report puts the share of Americans giving the president poor marks on the economy at roughly two in three. The midterm elections are in November.

Dubuque said he's telling customers why his rates are moving, fueling outside California where his routes allow, and running alternative fuels for overnight truck air conditioning. He isn't sure how long that holds if diesel keeps climbing.

Source: latimes.com, retrieved September 5, 2026.