Gas Prices Could Continue To Fluctuate, Prices Hit Year-High
(CBS DETROIT) - The cost of crude oil is going up.
"I feel gouged every day. I'm not the only one," said Eric Havard of Detroit.
And drivers are footing the bill.
"The Michigan state average is currently $2.82 a gallon for regular unleaded, and that's actually down from 2021 high that we set last Thursday of $2.85 a gallon," said Adrienne Woodlands, AAA Michigan Spokesperson.
Woodlands is told CW50/CBS Detroit refineries in Texas took a huge loss during the winter storm, and the recovery is sending blowback at the pump.
Also, changes on wall street drove up costs.
"A lot of mid-west states saw a spike because stocks were lower, so just the availability of gasoline stocks was lower in the mid-west and caused prices to go up," said Woodlands.
According to AAA, the average price in metro Detroit is $2.83, the highest recorded price for unleaded gasoline in two years.
"It does add up, and if you're not really paying attention to it monthly, yearly, quarterly, whatever, you're going to be way over budget as far as you know, just simple stuff like gas," said Kwesi Walker of Detroit.
Industry insiders also refer to the changes from winter to summer blends contributing to the gas prices.
"One of the things we see with crude oil is we saw crude oil go back to its prices of where it had been before the pandemic, so that was certainly pushing pump prices higher," said Woodlands.
With warmer weather kicking in, more drivers are expected to be on the roads driving up the demand and costs.
"It is a little too high, but if you thought about it two years ago it was like five dollars, $4.80 and stuff like that so $2.78 and really that high, but it can be a little lower because I think like last month, two months ago it was like $1.78, I thought last month. So, they can take a dollar off. That will save us some money and give us more miles to travel," said Devario Penn of Detroit.
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