GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Drivers filling up their gas tanks in Green Bay will be paying an average of 20.8 cents more per gallon this week, averaging $4.08/g on Monday.
This sharp jump in prices is again being pinned to conflict across the globe, as the ongoing situation between Russia and Ukraine is keeping the market unstable. Nick Jarmusz with AAA Wisconsin says it wasn’t exactly a surprise.
“A large part of that can be attributed to an increase in oil prices that spiked up after the E. U. announced a proposal to cut back, and actually eliminate their imports of Russian oil,” Jarmusz told WTAQ News. “This was a jump that we were expecting to happen after such an announcement was made, and once that was me last week, we kind of knew that this is the direction we’d be heading.”
Another major factor in gas prices is typically the road trip and peak driving season over the summer months. Jarmusz says unless there are other factors on supply or demand sides globally that can compensate, trend line likely to tick up throughout the summer.
“Unfortunately, we probably are going to see these higher prices stick around and possibly go up,” Jarmusz said. “I’d be surprised if we saw any sort of a significant drop down of prices until after we get on the other side of the road trip season, just because the demand is going to keep putting pressure on those prices.”
With that in mind, Jarmusz suggests adjusting how you drive to make your vehicle as efficient as possible. That means slowing down and toning down the aggression.
“Pulling away from the 70-80 miles an hour speeds, going back down closer to 65 or 60 is going to save you mileage…Just being less aggressive off of a stop, and also trying to avoid stops by coasting when you see a red light up ahead instead of driving all the way up to it and then stopping,” Jarmusz said. “Try to time things a little better so that you’re not using the accelerator quite as aggressively can significantly improve your vehicle’s gas mileage as much as 30-percent or more, and that certainly is going to add up to savings when we’re looking up prices this high…As long as it’s safe to do so, locking in at a safe speed instead of using your gas and brake and weaving in and out of traffic. That’s one, not a very safely to drive, but it’s also very inefficient in terms of fuel consumption.”
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