Pump shock: Texas diesel reaches highest price ever at $5.96 a gallon - USA Today

That spike matters here more than most places. Lubbock sits at the crossroads of freight routes running cotton, cattle and West Texas oil out to the rest of the country, and diesel is the fuel that moves almost all of it. Regular unleaded is climbing too, up to $3.93 a gallon statewide as of Thursday, September 17, pushing prices back to levels not seen since spring.

Truck drivers are the ones feeling this first and hardest, according to an AAA Texas spokesperson. But the pain does not stop at the pump. Every semi rolling down I-27 or through the Depot District hauling goods is burning diesel at record cost, and that expense gets passed down the chain to the shelves at grocery stores and the register at local shops. Farmers moving grain out of the South Plains face the same squeeze, right as harvest season ramps up.

Nobody knows yet if this is a peak or a plateau. AAA Texas has not said when relief might come, and crude oil prices remain the wildcard. If they do not retreat soon, the state could be staring at its highest fuel prices in years, right as Lubbock trucks haul this year's cotton crop to market.