NM stays below average as US gas reaches $3

Colonial Pipeline reopens after cyberattack; impact days away

The average national gas price on Wednesday hit $3 per gallon for the first time since 2014.

Costs have been on the rise since a cyberattack Friday forced Colonial Pipeline to temporarily shut down operations. The pipeline, which was reopening Wednesday, the company said, delivers nearly half of all fuel along the East Coast and South.

“Areas including Mississippi, Tennessee and the east coast from Georgia into Delaware are most likely to experience limited fuel availability and price increases, as early as this week,” AAA spokesperson Jeanette McGee said Tuesday in a news release. “These states may see prices increase three to seven cents this week.”

With the pipeline reopening, the effect on gas prices won’t be known for days, analysts said.

As of Wednesday, Americans were paying just over $3 a gallon on average for regular gas. That’s up from $2.985 the day before and $2.863 the previous month, AAA said.

It’s the first time since October 2014 that the United States’ average topped $3 a gallon, Patrick De Haan, an analyst for GasBuddy, wrote on Twitter.

At this time last year, the national average was $1.854. But oil production cuts and higher demand for gas in a recovering economy have been pushing prices higher in recent months, McClatchy News reported in March.

New Mexico’s average gas prices are a bit lower than the national average, reaching $2.925 Wednesday, according to AAA. That was up from $2.916 Tuesday. Several individual counties, however, are averaging above $3 per gallon, with Catron, Harding and San Juan counties seeing the highest prices.

Joshua Zuber, the AAA spokesman for New Mexico and Texas, wrote in an email Wednesday morning that the association has not heard of any fuel availability issues in the state.

But as news of the cyberattack spread, drivers in North Carolina and other states formed lines to reach gas pumps in a “panic-buying” spree. Among major metro areas, 71% of gas stations near Charlotte, 72% of stations near Raleigh and 60% of gas stations near Atlanta were without fuel as of Wednesday morning, according to GasBuddy.

Fuel experts are warning against rushing to buy gas.

Morgan Dean, a spokesperson for AAA, told CBS News anxious motorists should think twice before filling up their tanks.

“Panic buying of gas right now will create this artificial demand that will make all of this worse,” Dean said.

MEGAN VARNER/GETTY IMAGES Gas stations began to run out of fuel Wednesday in Atlanta after motorists rushed to fill up. Fuel shortages were reported throughout the Southeast after Georgia-based gas company Colonial Pipeline reported a ransomware attack Friday.