# Why have gas prices gone up recently
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-gas-prices-gone-up-recently/748032
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 5, 2016, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-gas-prices-gone-up-recently/748032 "2016-03-05T19:50:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2016, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-gas-prices-gone-up-recently/748032/1 "2016-03-05T19:50:12Z")
Up until a month ago, gasoline prices were declining and hit a low of about $1.27/gallon. Then they started rising again and are now around $1.90/gallon.
What caused the price spike? Was it the cost of crude, the cost of refining, or something else?
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### Author:  [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2016, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-gas-prices-gone-up-recently/748032/2 "2016-03-05T20:05:14Z")
Oil (light crude) has been going up for weeks now:
[http://money.cnn.com/data/commodities/index.html](http://money.cnn.com/data/commodities/index.html)
ETA: Interesting comparison - you can change the graph to show unleaded gasoline prices - they recently spike while the oil rise is more smooth - maybe something to do with how they’re sold? Not sure.
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2016, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-gas-prices-gone-up-recently/748032/3 "2016-03-05T20:16:36Z")
Gas prices haven’t gone up everywhere. A quick check of Gas Buddy shows gas is still cheap here in Tucson at an average of $1.35 with gas at Sam’s Club selling for $1.25 per gallon.
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### Author:  [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2016, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-gas-prices-gone-up-recently/748032/4 "2016-03-05T20:43:55Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#):
>
> Up until a month ago, gasoline prices were declining and hit a low of about $1.27/gallon. Then they started rising again and are now around $1.90/gallon.
>
> What caused the price spike? Was it the cost of crude, the cost of refining, or something else?
Gasoline prices are highly regional. Are you talking local prices or a national average? I haven’t noticed an increase around DC.
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2016, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-gas-prices-gone-up-recently/748032/5 "2016-03-05T20:58:44Z")
California gas jumped recently because of the switch from winter blend gas to summer gas, which costs more.
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### Author:  [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2016, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-gas-prices-gone-up-recently/748032/6 "2016-03-05T22:25:44Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#):
>
> Up until a month ago, gasoline prices were declining and hit a low of about $1.27/gallon. Then they started rising again and are now around $1.90/gallon.
>
> What caused the price spike? Was it the cost of crude, the cost of refining, or something else?
For some of us it was a combination of the currency being weak and the tax payer getting raped.
Declan
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2016, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-gas-prices-gone-up-recently/748032/7 "2016-03-05T22:32:37Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#):
>
> Up until a month ago, gasoline prices were declining and hit a low of about $1.27/gallon.
They _did_? Shit. I was happy to find the one station in my town that was selling it at the astronomically low price of $1.89.
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### Author:  [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2016, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-gas-prices-gone-up-recently/748032/8 "2016-03-05T23:22:02Z")
Stop moaning - petrol is fairly cheap here at around £3.74 ($5.32) per American gallon.
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### Author:  [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2016, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-gas-prices-gone-up-recently/748032/9 "2016-03-05T23:51:47Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#):
>
> California gas jumped recently because of the switch from winter blend gas to summer gas, which costs more.
Yeah, gas prices around here, especially short-run spikes and troughs, are often affected more significantly by seasonal changes like this than they are by the price of oil.
We’ve also been affected on and off over the past year by refinery problems here in California, which pushes down supply and raises prices. This is made worse by the fact that the state environmental requirements for gasoline mean that not all refineries can produce California-compliant gas, so that when a refinery goes offline, we can’t easily import gasoline from elsewhere.
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### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2016, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-gas-prices-gone-up-recently/748032/10 "2016-03-06T02:40:53Z")
Maybe it is based on location, I live in an area with 4 seasons so they probably switched the blend which plays a role.
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### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2016, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-gas-prices-gone-up-recently/748032/11 "2016-03-06T02:41:54Z")
> [@bob\_2](#):
>
> Stop moaning - petrol is fairly cheap here at around £3.74 ($5.32) per American gallon.
I like complaining on the internet. This will be my legacy when I’m dead and gone and all my grandkids ask ‘what was grandpa like when he was young’ and find all my posts where I complain about women and gasoline prices.
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### Author:  [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2016, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-gas-prices-gone-up-recently/748032/12 "2016-03-06T03:08:49Z")
> [@Ruken](#):
>
> Gasoline prices are highly regional. Are you talking local prices or a national average?
OP has returned but not answered. I’m reporting this for closure or moving to a forum that doesn’t deal with facts.
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### Author:  [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2016, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-gas-prices-gone-up-recently/748032/13 "2016-03-06T03:50:20Z")
In Queensland, Australia petrol is cheaper than it has been for a long time… it used to be 119c to 129c per litre but now it’s 99c or even 95c in some places… that’s about AUS$3.80 / gallon
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### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2016, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-gas-prices-gone-up-recently/748032/14 "2016-03-06T04:35:44Z")
> [@Ruken](#):
>
> OP has returned but not answered. I’m reporting this for closure or moving to a forum that doesn’t deal with facts.
Who told you that people are obligated to answer questions or face their threads being closed?
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### Author:  [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2016, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-gas-prices-gone-up-recently/748032/15 "2016-03-06T13:05:50Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#):
>
> Who told you that people are obligated to answer questions or face their threads being closed?
The question cannot be answered factually without a location, and I already told you why.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2016, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-gas-prices-gone-up-recently/748032/16 "2016-03-06T15:48:55Z")
> [@Ruken](#):
>
> OP has returned but not answered. I’m reporting this for closure or moving to a forum that doesn’t deal with facts.
**Moderator Note**
I see no reason to do either. If you feel the question can’t be answered, you are under no obligation to respond. Stop disrupting the thread.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2016, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-gas-prices-gone-up-recently/748032/17 "2016-03-06T16:06:18Z")
Here’s an article that says that as some kind of marketing gimmick, one gas station in Michigan sold gas for $.47 a gallon and one in Virginia sold gas for $1.29. They can’t make money at those prices. It can only be a short-time gimmick. If a gas station in your area sold gas at $1.27, it was trying some such gimmick. If that gas station is now selling gas at 1.90, it's quit doing that and is now selling gas at the price that it has to in order to make money. The average price of gas in the U.S. has only gone up by about .05 over the past two weeks. Again, where do you live? We can’t tell how good or bad a bargain a particular price is except by knowing where you live:
> **[Gas Price Hits 47 Cents a Gallon in Michigan After Price War](https://abcnews.go.com/US/michigan-gas-station-hits-47-cents-price-war/story?id=36358859)**
>
> Michigan was the first state to have gas under $1 in likely over a decade.
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2016, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-gas-prices-gone-up-recently/748032/18 "2016-03-06T16:15:40Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#):
>
> Here’s an article that says that as some kind of marketing gimmick, one gas station in Michigan sold gas for $.47 a gallon and one in Virginia sold gas for $1.29. They can’t make money at those prices. It can only be a short-time gimmick.
Not so. Gas in Phoenix is $1.30/gal this morning(according to gas buddy).
I’m sure that they’re not employing a money-losing gimmick.
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2016, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-gas-prices-gone-up-recently/748032/19 "2016-03-06T16:16:39Z")
Yeah, but it’s not $1.30 in Virginia.
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2016, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-gas-prices-gone-up-recently/748032/20 "2016-03-06T16:20:15Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#):
>
> Yeah, but it’s not $1.30 in Virginia.
$1.42 in Frederickburg. Cheaper dirt, lower cost of living.
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