GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – For the tenth straight week, the national average price of gasoline has continued to trend higher.
Wisconsinites like Kyla Troha tells FOX they’re eager to hit the road, but the high prices at the gas pump are changing her mind.
“It’s $30.48 to fill up my car and it used to take less than $22 from empty.”
Last April, gas prices in Wisconsin dropped down to a shocking 99 cents per gallon average.
According to GasBuddy, today people in Green Bay are paying an average of $2.64 a gallon.
A 30 cent per gallon increase since last month.
Head of Petroleum Analysis at GasBuddy, Patrick De Haan tells FOX 11 there are multiple factors behind the increase,
“States have reduced travel restrictions so Americans are finding places to go – at the same time oil companies that had lost billions last year, Shell, Exon, B.P. They had as a result lay off tens of thousands of workers and shut down wells across the country. Now things aren’t quite coming back in terms of oil production but its demand that’s starting to soar so it’s that imbalance.”
And the worst may not be over.
“We may not see prices peak until maybe later in the summer,” De Haan said.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires the use of summer blend gasoline starting June 1st. De Haan says this can add another five to 15 cents per gallon this summer.
De Haan says the most recent decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was to not increase oil supply until April.
“If OPEC increases oil production that may help end some of the increases we’ve been seeing,” said De Haan.
“I wish they would stay at one constant price,” said Tony Williams.
He says he’s just watching the price go up,
“It bothers me a little bit but at the end of the day it really don’t.. I want to see my family so I’m willing to pay whatever I need to pay.”
De Haan says President Joe Biden and his energy policies, like the cancellation of the Keystone XL Pipeline are not to blame for rising gas prices.
Comments