The only consolation is that prices in North County tend to run about 3 cents cheaper (than the rest of the county).

By our reckoning, ethanol has added about 20 cents a gallon to the cost of gasoline here in California.

Most of the bondholders probably bought these bonds cheaper than 80 cents on the dollar and they may be inclined to exchange at least some of what they own to help the company along -- and then their remaining bonds would be more valuable.

Rumors of refinery problems have created aggressive trading on the surplus fuel market, where independent station operators buy from. Although there is no shortage of gasoline, the day trading is driving prices higher.

So we're in the twilight zone of gas pricing before the spring turnarounds. This time of the year, we usually see the lowest prices.

We've seen our gas prices go up more than 25 cents since the first of the year. This is the fastest increase ever in the 10 years we've done the survey during this time of year.