Gas prices are on the rise again nationwide as summer approaches. A New York Daily Newsarticle quotes one insider who believes gas will hit $4 a gallon in parts of the U.S.
Homeowners and motorists got bad news yesterday as futures prices of crude oil, gasoline and natural gas rose and the American Automobile Association said gasoline at the pumps on Long Island rose by three cents in the past week.
For gasoline prices, at least one expert thinks this is just the beginning of a runup that will peak around Memorial Day weekend and again around Labor Day. "I think there are parts of the country that could see spike highs approaching $4 a gallon," said Mark Routt of Energy Security Analysis Inc., a consulting company in Wakefield, Mass.
Among his reasons: In the short term are shutdowns of refineries for maintenance or repairs, including part of a facility in St. Croix, the Virgin Islands, that's a key supplier to this region. Longer term, it will be a switch by refiners, largely voluntary, from the polluting MTBE to ethanol, a corn product, as an octane booster in gasoline. The shift, mandated by law last year in New York, will increase demand for - and the price of - ethanol, he said. "The supply pool just didn't increase overnight but the demand did," he said.
Gas prices have been running 30 to 40 cents above average since last year so it isn't a suprise to seem them jumping as the summer driving season approaches. Still people aren't going to be happy if this summer has prices 30 cents above last year's highs.
