The 44-cent jump in gasoline prices over the past four weeks was the largest in well over three years, according to AAA.
“The
44-cent month-over-month increase is the most dramatic since June 2009.
The largest increase on record was August 5-September 4, 2005 when
prices jumped 75 cents largely because of Hurricane Katrina,” the
travelers’ services group said in its weekly price analysis.
Here’s more from AAA:
The
national average has increased for 33 consecutive days, rising 46 cents
or nearly 14 percent during this stretch. This is the longest streak
since the price increased 44 cents over 44 days March 22-May 5, 2011.
This year’s run-up is not only larger and faster than recent years but
is beginning earlier. The national average in 2011 increased by just
seven cents during the same 33 day period and in 2012 it increased by 18
cents.
Average nationwide prices were $3.75 per gallon Tuesday, the highest on record for the calendar day.
That’s
well below record levels reached in the summer of 2008. But prices are
high enough to make the pump costs, which played a big role in
election-season attacks, reemerge as a political weapon for Republicans.
Republicans
on Wednesday used rising gasoline prices to reiterate calls for White
House approval of the Keystone XL pipeline that would bring oil from
Canadian oil sands projects to Gulf Coast refineries.
“Increased global competition for oil supplies and political tensions
in the Middle East are contributing to high gas prices as uncertainty
swells over future supplies. To help insulate ourselves from overseas
supply disruptions and future gas price spikes, America must look to
expand energy production here at home and increase imports from our
North American allies,” Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce
Committee said in a statement.
Critics of the proposed pipeline
say it will do nothing to lower gasoline prices, which are tethered to
crude oil prices set on global markets.
AAA, for its part, said this year’s earlier-than-usual rise in prices is related in part to refinery maintenance.
“One
reason for the earlier price increase is the trend of U.S. refineries
performing seasonal maintenance and making the switch-over to summer
blend gasoline production earlier in the year. This earlier schedule is
the choice of refiners and has not come in response to any change to the
deadline to complete the transition to summer-blend fuels, which are
required in many parts of the country and more expensive to produce,”
the group said.
“Regional supplies can decrease when refineries
go offline and subsequently markets are more sensitive during the
changeover period to refinery disruptions that would further squeeze
supply, as we have seen this year,” AAA said.
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/284081-aaa-four-week-gas-price-increase-largest-in-over-three-years#ixzz2LXM9UWQs
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on Feb. 21, 2013 at 7:43 AM
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Silver Member on Feb. 21, 2013 at 10:17 AMI'd like to know the difference between "summer blend and winter blend". It was cold here in Texas for 5 minutes and I couldn't tell the difference in my car performance.