The national average for unleaded gas hit a new high of 4.589 U.S. dollars per gallon on Thursday, in comparison with 3.043 dollars at this time last year, Trend reports citing Xinhua.
According to the latest data released by the American Automobile Association (AAA), California continues to have the highest average gas prices in the country with 6.061 dollars per gallon, and Mono county of the Golden State sees the highest price nationwide, at 7.058 dollars per gallon.
New records of gas prices were set early this week.
It's the first time in history that the average price for regular gas in California surpassed 6 dollars a gallon. The state's latest gas price was up sharply from 4.144 dollars a year ago, and about 5.853 dollars only a week ago.
Meanwhile, Georgia, Kansas and Oklahoma, the last three states which had average prices below 4 dollars a gallon, all crossed the threshold in Tuesday's reading.
The AAA blamed the soaring gas price to the rising price of crude oil, predicting that supply/demand dynamic, combined with volatile crude prices, would likely continue to keep upward pressure on pump prices.
"The high cost of oil, the key ingredient in gasoline, is driving these high pump prices for consumers," Andrew Gross, a spokesperson for the AAA, said in a statement.