We’re feeling the residual effects of Hurricane Laura this week as gas prices spiked at least 4 cents throughout the nation, says AAA Northeast.
While Laura forced some strong price increases, higher demand before the storm also contributed to price spikes, said Fran Mayko, AAA Northeast spokeswoman.
Today, the national gas price average of $2.23, 4 cents higher compared to last week and 35 cents higher than this time last month.
In Connecticut, prices also inched up 4 cents, but are still 52 cents lower than this time last year.
“Facilities, oil rigs and refineries in Texas are restarting operations,” Mayko said, “which means there’s no major threat to gasoline inventories.”
Even though 70% of the refineries in the Gulf of Mexico are temporarily offline, the industry expects gas prices to drop within the next week or so. “We believe prices will level out soon,” added Mayko.
Also contributing to the price spike was an increase in demand prior to the hurricane. “That’s not unusual,” said Mayko “as people fill their tanks and generators in anticipation of lengthy outages.”
Here is AAA’s weekly price survey of Connecticut’s six metro regions:
Greater Bridgeport $2.29 Lower Fairfield County: $2.30
New Haven/Meriden $2.20 Greater Hartford $2.20
New London/Norwich $2.24 Windham/Middlesex $2.25
Statewide Average: $2.23
Today, Mississippi and Louisiana register the lowest average per-gallon prices in the nation at $1.89 and $1.90, respectively, while California and Hawaii continue to hold the highest prices in the nation with $3.24 and $3.22, respectively. Connecticut dropped from the 20th spot to the 22nd spot on the list of states with the highest gas prices in the nation. Average gas prices may be obtained daily through wsww.gasprices.aaa.com.