According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), gas prices across the Volunteer State have risen sharply over the past month.
As of Tuesday, the average price for a gallon of gasoline statewide is $3.43, AAA’s website says.
One month ago, that number was $3.08; a week ago, it was $3.27, meaning that in the past seven days, gas prices have increased by 16 cents, more than two cents per gallon per day.
The $3.43 per gallon Tuesday figure also represents a five-cent jump since Monday, when the average price per gallon was $3.38.
Williamson County has the state’s highest average cost per gallon, at $3.75. Davidson and Cheatham counties, along with Haywood, Lauderdale, Lincoln, and Bradley Counties, all have gas prices hovering around $3.50 per gallon.
America’s current heatwave is partially to blame for the rising prices, according to GasBuddy’s Head of Petroleum Analysis Patrick De Haan.
“Gas prices suddenly soared over the last week due to heat-related refinery outages that impacted some of the largest refineries in the country, at a time when summer gasoline demand peaks and as gasoline inventories slid to their lowest July level since 2015,” De Haan said in a GasBuddy report.
“In addition, oil prices surged to their highest level in months, rising to over $80 per barrel due to SPR releases coming to an end and concerns over cuts in supply from Saudi Arabia and Russia, the second and third largest oil producers in the world,” he said.
SPR stands for Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The Biden administration made waves when it drained 180 million barrels from the SPR in 2022 to combat all-time high prices at the pump.
The SPR is run by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and has a total storage capacity of 714 million barrels.
De Haan said that while gas prices might taper off for now, the upcoming hurricane season could “easily push the national average over $4 per gallon for the first time in 2023.”
Making matters worse, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cut production of oil by nearly 1 million per day in July, causing the price per barrel to rise to $85, according to a Bloomberg report.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter.
“Truthy McTruthface:
Explaining something to a “Dumbocrat”
“is like a bee trying to explain to a fly why honey is better than shit”.
Intelligence’s is just not part of their DNA.
Bidenomics at its best.
kamala to joe: ‘we did it joe!’
if you want someone to blame, contact your local democrat or democrat voter