State’s average gas price jumps to $2.86, but drop-off expected soon
Hurricane Harvey has created supply problem
With an increase of 37 cents, Connecticut has seen one of the top-10 spikes in average gas price over the past week.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the average price for regular unleaded gas in Connecticut is $2.86, according to AAA. It’s $2.89 for the Norwich/New London area, which saw a 40-cent increase in one week. The national average is $2.65, up 27 cents in the past week.
In Connecticut, the average cost was $2.81 on Sunday, $2.74 on Saturday and $2.60 on Friday.
The root cause of soaring prices nationwide is Hurricane Harvey.
“What you have is a ripple effect, and it’s not that we get our gas from Texas, but some places that do get gas from Texas and can no longer get gas from Texas, they’ll be pulling down our supplies,” said Amy Parmenter, spokeswoman for AAA in Connecticut.
For example, she said, Florida might be getting more gas from the Northeast because of Texas refineries going offline.
At its peak, Harvey shuttered 27 percent of processing capacity in the country, a news release from AAA stated, and no refineries have returned to normal rates.
Parmenter expects gas prices to rise another 5 or 10 cents throughout the week. But, looking a few weeks out, she said things are looking up — or rather, in terms of gas prices, things are looking down.
She said Connecticut should see “a really significant drop-off in gas prices” soon, because supplies will be flowing again, there will be the option to switch to the cheaper winter blend of gasoline, and the end of
summer results in less driving and therefore less demand.
“It appears that the refineries were not significantly damaged, so that’s good,” Parmenter said, “so AAA analysts expect this spike to be short-lived, and when I say short-lived, I say weeks, not months.”
She believes this drop-off should start around the end of September but cited two variables: how long it takes refineries to get back online, and the impact of Hurricane Irma.
Elsewhere in the United States, Delaware saw the largest weekly gas price increase, of 44 cents. The other states with greater increases than Connecticut are Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, Tennessee, South Carolina and North Carolina.
Juanita Brown is from New Jersey but was in New London on Tuesday visiting her mother and filling up her mother’s car at the Shell on Ocean Avenue. The price was $2.89 for regular when paid by credit.
“I don’t look at the gas prices. I probably should,” Brown said. “I’m just focused on convenience.”
Brown feels blessed she isn’t living paycheck to paycheck but said she “can empathize with people who do live paycheck to paycheck and have to drive a great distance, because it does add up.”
At Xpress Fuel on Route 12 in Groton, Leo Dankiw was filling up his red truck — emblazoned on both sides with the name and information of Rainey Construction — on Tuesday afternoon.
The Stonington resident said he doesn’t have the option of driving less when gas prices rise.
“I travel a lot for work, so no matter how much they rise, I’ll probably pay more,” he said. But he ended up at one of the cheaper places to pump in the area; regular was $2.59 per gallon, cash or credit.
New London resident Clara Reeve said she specifically goes to Xpress Fuel because it’s the cheapest around, something she has ascertained from driving around. She said she hasn’t been surprised by the rising fuel costs.
“I think we knew when the disaster hit Texas and the refineries, prices would have to go up,” she said.
Less than a half-mile from Xpress Fuel is Cory’s Petroleum, which had a regular cash price of $2.35 on Tuesday morning. According to the app GasBuddy, this is the cheapest in the New London area.
Per AAA, the state with the cheapest average gas price in the country is Arizona, at $2.36. The only states where gas prices have remained stable over the past week are Alaska, Idaho, Hawaii and Utah.
At this time last year, the average gas price was $2.22 nationwide, $2.31 in Connecticut and $2.30 in the Norwich-New London area. The average for Connecticut around Labor Day weekend in 2015 was $2.58.