Why are gas prices going up again?

David Knowles
·Senior Editor
Updated ·3 min read
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A car gets a refill at a gas station in Englewood, Colo.
Filling it up at a gas station in Englewood, Colo. (David Zalubowski/AP)

Gas prices are again on the rise, and the extreme heat being felt in the Northern Hemisphere is partly to blame.

Nationally, the price of a gallon of gasoline rose by 4 cents on Tuesday, the largest single-day increase in a year. In Florida, the price jumped by 8 cents in a single day. Over the past week, the average price of gas has spiked 10 cents nationally, according to AAA, and every part of the country is being impacted.

“Compared to this time last month, gasoline in the Pittsburgh market is about 10 cents, 11 cents more expensive because we’ve seen crude oil prices inching upward,” Jim Garrity of AAA East Central Region told local TV station WPXI.

The price of gasoline now stands at $3.64 per gallon, according to AAA, much lower than last summer’s high of just over $5. But the cost to fill up a tank has been creeping upward from the $3.55 per gallon seen on July 4.

“All of a sudden, things have popped up after a long period of low prices,” Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, told CNN.

Over the past six weeks the price of oil has risen 17%, and Lipow attributed it to two main factors: cuts in production from Russia and OPEC, and the record-breaking heat that has been scorching half the globe over that time.

How extreme heat causes gas prices to rise

The sun rises over power lines in Houston.
Power lines in Houston. Meteorologists say scorching temperatures brought on by a heat dome have taxed the Texas power grid. (David J. Phillip/AP)

Extreme high temperatures can cause oil refineries to cut production. “Refineries, like humans, do not like it when the heat index is 115,” Lipow told CNN.

As the mercury rises into triple-digit territory, outages at refineries become more common.

“With extreme heat also leading to some refinery outages, and with July gasoline inventories at their lowest level since 2015, we’re primed to see the cost increases showing up in force this week across the country,” Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, told Fox News Business on Tuesday. “Already this morning, GasBuddy is seeing large price increases in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Florida.”

In order to escape the heat, people ramp up their use of air conditioning, increasing the demand for natural gas and further causing prices to spike.

In turn, extended heat waves like the ones being felt this summer can lower the output of hydroelectric power, resulting in greater reliance on oil and gas. As the demand for oil and gas has risen in tandem with higher temperatures, U.S. oil inventories and production have fallen.

What higher gas prices mean for the economy

While the steep drop in gas prices seen earlier this summer helped ease inflation in the United States, sudden rises can do the opposite. Even a 1-cent rise in the cost of a gallon of gas can make a big difference, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, taking away roughly $1.15 billion in annualized spending power. In other words, higher gas prices deprive American consumers of money they could spend elsewhere.

Reliance on fossil fuels leads to hotter temperatures

While extreme heat can help push gas prices higher, the cruel irony is that mankind's reliance on gas is what scientists blame for the increase in global temperatures. The solution to the latter problem, experts like University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann say, is to quickly transition to cleaner sources of power.