{"id":201851,"date":"2026-03-03T06:57:43","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T06:57:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/201851\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T06:57:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T06:57:43","slug":"kern-county-residents-brace-for-higher-gas-prices-amid-u-s-israel-strikes-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/201851\/","title":{"rendered":"Kern County residents brace for higher gas prices amid U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

BAKERSFIELD, Calif (KBAK\/KBFX) As the United States and Israel continue to bombard Iran with missiles, some Kern County locals are worried the conflict could drive up gas prices across California.<\/p>\n

Asked whether prices could rise because of the conflict in Iran, Lake Isabella resident Barbara Peachy said, \u201cSure they will. Absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others said higher prices at the pump would add to the financial strain many people already feel. <\/p>\n

\"Kern<\/p>\n

Kern County residents brace for higher gas prices amid U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran (AP Photo\/Vahid Salemi)<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean it\u2019s hard for people to get by these days and so with everything going up including gas. It can definitely be very stressful,\u201d said Kristen Silva.<\/p>\n

In a press conference on Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said a team is already meeting regularly to address oil-related concerns. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe good news is, as you know well, because of those refinery issues we\u2019ve got a wonderful group of people that are meeting on a consistent basis already. This just only reinforces the concerns we have as it relates to gas scarcity,\u201d Newsom said.<\/p>\n

Stuart Heisler, vice president of Anacapa Engineering, said the conflict could have an outsized impact on California because of the state\u2019s reliance on imported oil.<\/p>\n

\"Kern<\/p>\n

Kern County residents brace for higher gas prices amid U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran (Photo by Brandon Bell\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty percent of our actual barrels of oil coming into California are from the Strait of Hormuz. So that oil is gone,\u201d Heisler said.<\/p>\n

The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway along the southern coast of Iran that provides passage to one-fifth of the world\u2019s oil supply and has been closed by Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard.<\/p>\n

Heisler said California could see a sharper impact than other places. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as we\u2019re going to see a spike in oil price and gasoline price across the world and the country – we\u2019re going to get hit double in California,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Kern<\/p>\n

Kern County residents brace for higher gas prices amid U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran(U.S. Navy via AP)<\/p>\n

He also said prices were already rising. \u201cWe are already seeing the price of oil go up six – seven percent over the weekend,\u201d Heisler said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif (KBAK\/KBFX) As the United States and Israel continue to bombard Iran with missiles, some Kern County…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-201851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}