Gas Prices Rising More Slowly

The average price across the United States for a gallon of gasoline last week rose 1.6 cents to $2.06, as of Monday morning. Gas prices are now at their highest levels since last November, according to GasBuddy.

Week over week, prices increased the most in Michigan (11.2 cents per gallon), Arizona (8.3 cents), Utah (5.9 cents) and Hawaii (5.7 cents). Prices fell the most in Minnesota (6.5 cents), and declined in 16 other states as well, including Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Nebraska and Iowa.

The cheapest gas in the country is available in Oklahoma ($1.788 per gallon), South Carolina ($1.845), Arkansas ($1.848), New Jersey ($1.851) and Louisiana ($1.853).

GasBuddy noted that even though prices remain low across much of the country, higher prices are on their way:

[O]dds are high that gasoline prices will reignite, moving higher as more regions begin pumping summer gasoline- fuels created via Clean Air Act amendments in 1990, requiring cleaner gasoline in a first phase in 1995 and a second phase in 2000. Since these gasoline requirements, motorists have seen fuel prices lift almost every year. However, as a GasBuddy analysis showed, the first quarter of 2016 saw the lowest quarterly U.S. average since the first quarter of 2004 at $1.87 per gallon. Similarly, oil prices averaged their lowest during the first quarter since 2003 at some $33.63 per barrel.

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The states with the highest pump prices currently are: California ($2.795 per gallon), Hawaii ($2.618), Nevada ($2.450), Washington ($2.292) and Alaska $2.246).

Crude oil for May delivery traded down about 0.6% Monday morning at $36.57, after closing at $36.79 on Friday. Falling prices for crude oil will help moderate the increases in gasoline prices.

The most common price for regular gasoline is $1.999 a gallon, unchanged from last week, and nearly 97% of U.S. gas stations are selling gas for more than $1.75 a gallon, down slightly from a week ago.