Gas prices up 15-cents a gallon in West Los Angeles

By the end of the business day on Wednesday pump prices in parts of West Los Angeles were up 15-cents a gallon from what they were on Monday. This came amid news reports of the refinery fire in Northern California and the forecast that pump prices would shoot up within a week.

It didn't take a week.

Which tells me the early price increases are evidence of price gouging and retailers taking advantage of consumers by raising prices for fuel already in their tanks before the arrival of higher-priced replacement fuel.

I don't object to retailers passing along the cost of "new" higher-priced fuel, but to raise the price of gas that was received and is in their tanks at a lower wholesale price is taking advantage of the public.

To add insult to injury, the gas stations with the premature price hikes were among those that already had the highest prices in the area even before the fire.