San Juan County drivers question why fuel prices stay high
San Juan County drivers are paying $4.261 for regular gas, about 38 cents more than McKinley County, as state investigators and local leaders revisit why.
San Juan County Commissioner Sandra Lanier asked the state to review high fuel prices in the Four Corners area after AAA showed regular unleaded averaging $4.261 a gallon in the county on July 8. That was about 38 cents more than McKinley County’s $3.88 average, and Lanier said some San Juan County drivers were paying as much as 50 cents more per gallon than motorists in the Albuquerque metro.
The request added formal local government pressure to a problem that Farmington, Aztec, Bloomfield and Kirtland drivers have raised for years. The New Mexico Department of Justice has looked at fuel prices in San Juan County under previous attorneys general, but those reviews did not produce a clear enforcement case. Even so, the scrutiny has at times brought brief relief at the pump, keeping the question alive for commuters, workers and families who depend on daily driving in a county spread across highways and rural roads.
Farmington Mayor Nate Duckett also pushed for action. He reached out to the Attorney General’s Office last year to start an investigation into possible price gouging, and he has said the concern goes back further than that. The new state review comes as residents continue to compare prices across the county and against nearby markets, where even small differences can add up quickly for long commutes, delivery costs and family budgets.
The stakes are not abstract in a region where many households have no practical alternative to driving. Fuel prices feed directly into the cost of getting to work, school and medical appointments, and they also affect the price of doing business across the Four Corners area. That is why the county’s July 9 request matters: it frames gas prices as both a consumer issue and a question of fairness, transparency and market competition.
The latest round of attention now puts the burden on state officials and local leaders to explain why San Juan County remains above nearby counties such as McKinley and why the gap persists even after earlier investigations. For drivers filling up in Farmington and the surrounding communities, the issue is still measured one gallon at a time.
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