Gas Is Over $4 In America, But $5 In This State

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Mar 6, 10:25AM EST

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Gas Is Over $4 In America, But $5 In This State — © DutcherAerials / E+ via Getty Images

Gas prices surged above $4 per gallon of regular for the first time since 2008. This happened as crude oil prices surged above $100. The increase will likely continue, toward the all-time record of $4.10. As for the cause, Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy commented: “This is a milestone that was hard to imagine happening so quickly, but with bipartisan support of severe sanctions on Russia, is not exactly surprising – it is the cost of choking off Russia from energy revenue.” His new forecast for what Americans will spend on gas this year hit $568 billion, up from $408 billion last year.

Gas prices can be affected by factors beyond the price of crude. Refinery use can drive shortages. Sometimes refinery management shutters facilities for maintenance. Occasionally, an accident can close a refinery. Marathon Petroleum Corp’s 578,000 barrel-per-day Garyville, Louisiana location stopped operations on February 22, due to an explosion.

Whether a state is near or far from large refineries can also make prices vary. States near and around the Gulf of Mexico, its well and refineries tend to have lower prices.

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Gas taxes also play a role, both those collected by the federal government and all of the states. One proposal floated by some members of Congress involves suspending these taxes to bring down consumer costs. This could save as much as $.50 a gallon.

The prices of gas, based on an average gallon of regular, have moved above $5 in California, which makes it the most expensive among all states. Yesterday, Gas Buddy put the California price at $5.27. About 12% of America’s population lives in California.

Gas taxes in California help make prices higher than the rest of the country. According to the American Petroleum Institute‘s gasoline report posted on January 1, California’s gas taxes total $.8655 per gallon. That compared to the national average of $.5709. The state with the lowest number is Alaska at $.3353.

Some officials want to temporarily cut the California tax. However, the effort may not go through. According to ABC10, “While Governor Gavin Newsom proposed suspending the gas tax to help with costs, not all Democrats are eager to jump on board.”

Click here to read States With the Highest Gas Taxes

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.