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2010 Was a Gas: Prices at the Pump Fill Up to 2-Year High

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Photo by stephenfalk via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr

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If the next few days involve fueling up and hitting the road, whether it's a long weekend getaway or a drive to Pasadena to see the Rose Parade, you'll be feeling a budgetary hit we haven't felt in SoCal since 2008. "Southern California gas prices are at their highest December levels of all time - and higher than at any point since October 2008 - after continuing to rise all week," according to the Automobile Club of Southern California.

In the LA and Long Beach area, the average price of self-serve regular gasoline is $3.308 per gallon, up 3.9 cents from last week, 18 cents from last month, and 34 cents from last year. While normally there is a region-to-region gap in gas prices in SoCal of about 10- to 20-cents, right now there's about a 5 cent gap, which means there's little relief wherever your four wheels may take you.

How much worse can it get? "Ex-president of Shell Oil John Hofmeister predicts five-dollars a gallon by 2012," reports CBS2. So who has "get a bike and ride it often" as a New Year's resolution, hmm?

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