Gas stations in America are starting to max out their displays with $9.999 prices
Por Graig Graziosi — – World RSS Feed
Gas stations in America are starting to max out their displays with $9.999 prices
Gas station displays typically only have four digits, meaning they can’t show $10 or more per gallon prices
Graig Graziosi in Washington, D.C. Thursday 10 September 2026 21:38 BST
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Diesel prices in California are so high that some gas stations can’t show the correct price on their pumps.
Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, found that five California gas stations have hit $9.999 per gallon — the maximum price that gas stations can show on their digital displays, which typically only display four digits.
The report is based on GasBuddy’s data. The cities and specific stations were not identified in De Haan’s post, but he showed a screenshot of the reported prices. GasBuddy is known for tracking gas prices as stations across the nation.
As of September 9, California’s average diesel price was $7.76 per gallon, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The increase comes as the U.S. war in Iran wears on and the world faces a limited supply after the Strait of Hormuz was closed.
That price was a 55-cent increase from a week prior, and up $2.81 from this time last year.
Diesel also hit a new high nationwide; the U.S. average for diesel hit a record $5.87 per gallon, topping the previous high of $5.81 that was set in June 2022.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that national diesel prices were up 3.7 cents week over week and $1.97 year over year.
Reports of extremely high prices at individual gas stations have been plaguing California. At one station in Fenner, California, prices for regular gas were reportedly $9.69 per gallon, according to CBS 12 News.
In May, a Chevron station in downtown Los Angeles reportedly was charging $8.89 per gallon for diesel and $8.29 for regular gasoline.
Regulators in California have reportedly launched an investigation into extreme fuel pricing at individual stations in the San Bernardino and Los Angeles areas, though no alleged outliers have been proven.
President Donald Trump, whose war in Iran has been a major driver of high fuel prices, admitted that oil prices are not likely to fall until at least after the midterm elections.
“Right after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward. They’re going to be tumbling down, and we’ll get them down. I think for gasoline we’ll get them below $2 a gallon,” Trump said Wednesday.
Trump has been insisting that gas prices will come down when the war ends since the early spring, just after he joined Israel in striking Iran. Then, he complained that prices weren’t coming down fast enough in June.
“Customers are being ‘gouged,'” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post at the time. “Gasoline prices better start going down a lot faster than what I’m seeing!”
They have remained high since his post, and show no signs of decreasing in the immediate future.
Trump has been desperate to try to force U.S. gas prices lower ahead of the midterms. He has even authorized the tapping of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which the U.S. maintains as an emergency stockpile of crude oil.
The president authorized the release of 172 million barrels of oil from the reserve earlier this year. Last week, the reserve fell by approximately 1.2 million barrels to 285.4 million barrels, according to Department of Energy data.
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