'It's getting tough': Why Chicago gas prices are on the rise and showing no signs of going down
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The dreaded gas prices everyone has been paying are still going up.
The average for a gallon of gas in Chicago is more than $6.00. That's a dollar more than the national average which is just under $5.00.
So, why is our gas so high? CBS 2's Marie Saavedra breaks it down to the penny.
Call it a story born out of frustration. If we're going to be paying hand over fist every time we fuel up, we wanted a refresher on where our hard earned money goes in every gallon. It may be tempting to give your gas station owner a dirty look, but don't.
"It's getting tough actually, day by day."
Cyrian Chandy owns a BP in Skokie and these prices aren't helping his bottom line.
"Because of that our inside sales have gone down. Nobody's coming inside and buying stuff you know. People don't have money pay for gas and pop and everything else."
CBS 2 called in GasBuddy's Patrick De Haan for who's getting what per gallon.
"Your station owner at the street level, they'll be lucky to make 10 or 15 cents a gallon," De Haan said.
It probably won't surprise you who's winning.
"Oil companies do very well. Refiners are doing very well right now. Uncle Sam is doing very well," De Haan said.
Let's say you're filling up in Chicago paying $6.00 a gallon. Eight cents of that goes to the city. Six cents goes to Cook County, and 39 cents per gallon goes to the state of Illinois. That's just in gas taxes alone.
Illinois charges a 6.25% sales tax on top of that, so that's another 37 cents. The federal government takes 18 cents. The remaining $4.92 goes to big oil, refineries and transport companies who bring the gas to stations. Their owners get the few cents left.
"The irony is that they're not doing anything different, right. The state's taking in a lot more revenue when it comes to gasoline," De Haan said.
De Haan wishes there was better news, .but relief looks far off. We're still sanctioning Russia's oil, supply is slimmer and demand's still high. So $6.00 could stick around for a while.
"I don't want to say it, and I certainly don't want to see it, but I think at this point, you know if anything else goes wrong, I think we're going to be knocking on the door of $6.00 a gallon," De Haan said.
Experts with GasBuddy said there's another reason our region's prices are so high. The Midwest's gas inventory is at its lowest seasonal level on record. And that lack of supply is playing a role in how the market sets prices.