Experts say gas prices are increasing, here’s why
Gas prices are on the rise.
Drivers are paying more at the pump for the first time in two months.
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The national average gas price rose 12.3 cents per gallon from a week ago, according to a GasBuddy analysis of more than eleven million price reports from stations across the country.
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Experts say, once again, Mother Nature is partly to blame. The extreme cold weather last week led to many refinery issues. That limited how many barrels of oil could be refined and pushed up wholesale prices. That then gets passed down to consumers at the pump.
Read: Florida gas prices return to more than $3 per gallon; here’s what experts predict for 2023
We asked GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan how long drivers should expect to see these higher prices.
“It is not a light switch,” he explained. “It does take several days, and in some cases, refineries that experience outages may take maybe a month or two to get fully back online because of the damage that needs to be repaired. But in essence, I would expect that over the next two weeks we should see the increases start to taper out. In fact, we could see gas prices start rolling back slightly by mid and late January.”
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GasBuddy reports the most common gas price across the country is $2.99. Drivers in Hawaii see the highest average prices, whereas drivers in Georgia see the lowest.
For perspective, the current national average price is still lower than it was a month ago and a year ago.
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