Gas prices spiked across the Midwest late last week, but it has very little to do with the coming Labor Day weekend. Kara Hitchens with AAA says there was an interruption in the supply chain.
“Late last week, there was some flooding at the BP Whiting Refinery in Indiana. That caused a slowdown in some of the production,” she says. “Things are back up now. Things have been resolved. We should probably — fingers crossed — see those prices come back down again.”
Hitchens says a lot of different factors play into price fluctuations.
“Demand: a heavy travel weekend could be it. Weather can play a huge role. We are in the middle of hurricane season,” she says. “And then we always talk about any kind of global geo-political unrest, we always figure that’s going to impact gas prices as well.”
With the refinery issue settled, she expects prices to stabilize before rising for the Labor Day weekend.
“We always talk about filling up before the (holiday) weekend — filling it up on a Tuesday or a Wednesday is generally best,” she says. “There’s not a high demand.”
Hitchens says as of Monday, the national average for a gallon of unleaded is $3.16. A year ago it was $3.35. In Ohio, the average right now is $3.32 a gallon, up a dime from a year ago.
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