SALISBURY, Md. - Just when people were relieved to start paying less at the pump, this week's increase in gas prices are not sitting well with drivers here on Delmarva. According to AAA, the national average of gas is $4.13 and it's going up daily.
Like most of us, Larry Stewart of Salisbury is paying more these days to fuel up. Stewart says gas prices now a days are unpredictable and unbearable.
“Gas price is one way and the next day it's up. You just don't know what to do. You need gas to survive and to get around and do things that you need to do. However, you're just uncertain as to what you can do with the gas prices. One day it's $3, next day it's $4, now it's $4.25. It's just a crazy thing we have to go through,” says Stewart.
Doug Miller is from Laurel. We found Doug at a gas station in Delaware, where gas prices were also $4.25 a gallon. Miller says he was not expecting that.
“Yeah it stinks! The last time I got gas was about 6 weeks ago and it was $3.99. I know Maryland went down because they had a tax thing and I was hoping Delaware would go down and I waited a little too long and now it went back up to $4.25,” says Miller.
AAA tells WBOC there are several factors that contribute to gas prices going up.
“We have certainly seen an increase in the price of crude oil ever since the war with Ukraine in Russia started. So that has continued to be a factor. There are certainly fears of a COVID induced economic slowdown in China. So that too, is playing a playing a role in what we're seeing with crude oil prices,” says Ragina Ali, Public & Government Affairs of AAA.
AAA says those two factors are resulting in oil prices hovering around $100 a barrel, which all trickles down to the individual drivers paying more at the pump.
In Maryland, the state's gas tax reprieve ended April 16. The state's House of Delegates voted against an amendment that would have extended the holiday.