As gas prices are on the rise, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who is running for governor of California, called on Sacramento to temporarily suspend the state’s gas tax. According to AAA, the average price for a gallon of gas in California is $5.42, which is significantly higher than the national a verage of $3.63. UC Berkeley professor Severin Borenstein said typically, gas prices in California are about a dollar and a half higher than the rest of the country. “About a dollar of that is due to the higher taxes we have, the environmental fees we have, and the fact that we use a cleaner burning gasoline, which has helped clean up air quality quite a bit in California,” he said. Because of this, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan announced he called on Sacramento to temporarily suspend the state’s gas taxes. “I’m calling on our state leaders to temporarily suspend our gas tax and provide relief to those who need it most,” Mahan said. However, Governor Gavin Newsom said pumping the brakes on the gas tax won’t necessarily bring down prices: his office said in a statement earlier this week, saying that, “Gas taxes are fixed costs that don’t fluctuate with the market and have nothing to do with the price spikes that Americans are experiencing this week.” But as the war with Iran goes on, drivers across the Bay Area are still seeing an increase at the pump. And it could get even worse. “If the conflict drags on and we start to deplete the inventories we’re using now, it’s possible that prices could spike quite a bit higher,” Borenstein said. Borenstein said it is possible for gas to reach $7 a gallon, and even, NBC Bay Area crews saw a gas station on Sand Hill in Menlo Park where gas already reached that price; ultimately, Borenstein notes much of it depends on the war, and there is a lot of uncertainty with that. He recommended paying attention to different gas prices across different areas and shop around. ...read more read less