Why We're Feeling This Pain at the Pumps

If you haven't seen it, you’ve heard it: Gas prices are hiking north with quickniess. 

But while oil investors' jitters may be causing the current rise, there’s a less sinister reason as to why you can expect prices to remain high for a while: Summer blend.

It's not coffee; it’s a blend of gasoline released around April that makes sure as temperatures rise, gasoline doesn’t vaporize in the open air too fast. Summer blend requires additives, which make it more expensive for refineries to produce. That’s part of the reason we’ll all be paying more for gasoline as April approaches, Cynthia Harris, AAA spokeswoman, said.

Bookmark our Traffic & Gas page for updates on the cheapest gas in town. 

Onto the worse news:

“Right now there’s a perfect storm of news affecting the oil market, such as the threat of an Iran oil embargo that could roil investors, combined with an economy where refineries are not producing as much gasoline as they could because there is less demand,” Harris said, explaining that because people are driving less, refineries have been producing less gasoline.

Future oil prices are nearly impossible to predict, but at the rate they’ve been going up it’s conceivable we could see summer prices approach the way they were in 2008.  

“In 2008 we did experience gas prices above $5 a gallon and that could happen again this year,” Harris said.

Do you hear that? Somewhere there’s a Ford Expedition owner crying.

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