Gas Prices Continue To Climb

The average price of gasoline is up 20 cents over last month and more than 50 cents from a year ago.

February 22, 2012

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. - The pain at the pump will continue, with summer travel time likely to see a bump of another 50 cents, the Daily News reports. According to AAA, the average price for regular gasoline has jumped 20 cents from January and more than a half dollar since this time last year.

"Historically, we usually see anywhere from a 45- to 50-cent additional increase when the summer travel season begins," said Cathy Hein, AAA Carolinas spokeswoman. That could mean the region will have gasoline prices over $4.05, the record set back in July 2008.

Hein pointed to the current conditions in the Middle East and Iran, coupled with the recovering economy, as why prices are high during what is usually a low for gasoline prices. U.S. gasoline demand registered a small year-over-year drop in 2011, a trend that the U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts will continue this year and into next.

"Fewer of us are driving just because we don??t have the means to absorb the extra costs," she said. "If it??s a matter of putting dinner on the table or taking a vacation, those are the choices people are making right now."

Jeff Lenard, NACS spokesman, said high pump prices are changing how retailers conduct business. "You??ll see retailers depend upon other products to build their business," he said.

He also said that the switch to the more costly summer blend, which occurs around Memorial Day, would also contribute to rising gasoline prices during the summer. But Lenard stressed that only the states that typically have high gasoline prices, such as Hawaii, will see pump prices top $5. "There will be some $5s," he said. "It??s shaping up that somewhere somebody will be pulling out the $5s."

Meanwhile, the high cost of gasoline is attracting thieves. In Tampa, Fla., thieves attempted to siphon hundreds of gallons of gasoline from an underground storage tank at a gasoline station, the Tampa Bay Times reports. A deputy investigated a suspicious minivan parked at a strange angle in a closed gas station, thus thwarting the would-be thieves, who managed to escape in another vehicle.

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