Gas prices in California down $1 since peak. How are prices in Sonoma County being affected?

Statewide gas prices have fallen about $1 per gallon since peaking in June.

For many motorists in the Bay Area, the downturn has been a slow but welcome return to gas prices that are near, if not below $5 per gallon.

Severin Borenstein, a UC Berkeley energy economist, told The Press Democrat that gas in nearby Orinda, about an hour south of Santa Rosa, was selling at $4.99 per gallon. He said he paid a similar price over the weekend in Auburn, just outside of Sacramento.

Nationwide fuel prices have so far fallen for 53 consecutive days, placing Sonoma County’s average cost for a gallon of regular unleaded fuel at $5.56 as of Sunday, according to AAA.

That translated to as low as $5.19 per gallon for Santa Rosa drivers, according to Gas Buddy, the online company that tracks gas prices across the country. The lowest local price was at the Costco on Santa Rosa Avenue.

Borenstein added that the lower prices have mainly been available at “off-brand stations,” though it is still too early to say how long the downward trend will continue. The biggest factor will be oil prices, which sold for less than $100 per barrel on Sunday.

“Given that most of this drop is being driven by crude oil prices, it is very hard to predict if it will continue all the way into September,” Borenstein said.

Petaluma resident Trent Morgan, 25, paid $5.23 per gallon at the Safeway station on Mendocino Avenue in Santa Rosa Sunday. He’s counting down to the days when he will be able to pay less than $5.

“This was the first year I paid $5-something for gas,” he said as he stood beside his Toyota RAV4. “Paying $4 and change brings a sense of normalcy. That’s all I want.”

Even better, he added, would be paying less than $4 per gallon. But he acknowledged that’s like a pipe dream.

Worldwide gas prices began skyrocketing in March in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which set off a domino effect involving the world’s oil supply and, in turn, gasoline supply.

Oil surpassed $100 per barrel, causing the nation’s average price for a gallon of regular unleaded fuel to peak at $5.02 on June 14, according to AAA.

One day earlier, Santa Rosa’s average price reached a record-setting $6.61 per gallon. The city’s average has historically been on par with Sonoma County’s average cost per gallon of gas.

In June, California lawmakers announced they would investigate oil companies and why the Golden State’s fuel prices are higher than in other states.

In recent weeks, experts say, prices have dipped in response to lower demand that has resulted from the high fuel costs, as well as concerns of a possible recession.

Over the weekend, Patrick De Haan, Gas Buddy’s head of petroleum analysis, emphasized the correlation between low gas prices and a weak economy.

“Everyone's clamoring for #gasprices they paid at the height of the pandemic,” he tweeted on Sunday. “You want your $1.86 or whatever price? Go back in time to when the economy was in the can, millions were let go from their jobs, the stock market crashed, and when there wasn't an answer yet to COVID.”

You can reach Staff Writer Colin Atagi at colin.atagi@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @colin_atagi