By fitsnews – February 20, 2013Six days ago this website conducted its usual mid-month review of gas prices in South Carolina – and across the country. And boy did we ever pick the wrong week to take stock of this critical index …
Last week, the average price for unleaded gasoline in South Carolina was $3.37 a gallon according to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge report. That figure was well below the national average of $3.61.
In just six days, however, South Carolina’s per gallon average price has shot up to $3.60 – a whopping 23-cent increase. Nationally, gas prices have climbed to $3.76 per gallon – a fifteen cent increase.
South Carolina still has some of the cheapest gas in America (the seventh-cheapest, as a matter of fact), but as we’ve noted on numerous previous occasions our dirt poor citizens pay a much larger percentage of their income on fuel costs (more than any state save Mississippi). Hence our opposition to gas tax increases – and support for gas tax cuts.
Anyway … we didn’t want to let the month go by without providing an update based on these rapid price increases.
What’s causing this fresh pain at the pump? A report from Fox Business speculates that the increases might be the result of tax policy in oil-rich states like Texas and Louisiana. According to the theory, those states assess gulf coast fuel inventories on December 31 – prompting companies to reduce their supply by millions of barrels in an effort to limit their exposure.
What’s gas like in your neck of the woods? Post your experiences in our comments section below …
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