Yakima gas prices up, approaching $2.60 per gallon

That’s an increase of almost 20 cents from this time last month. Nebraska realized a 1.5 cent bump to 29.5 cents per gallon, while Georgia, Florida, Indiana and North Carolina all experienced less than a penny increases per gallon, which are based on automatic adjustments.

Petroleum analyst GasBuddy.com reports prices are 48 cents higher than one year ago and 27 cents higher than a month ago.

Alex Lunde understands this economic tension.

Ready to say goodbye to $2 gas?

The lowest price on the Coast past year was $1.50, on February 15.

When April rolls around, we could be paying as much as $3 for a gallon of gas.

Still, Lunde isn’t rooting for $5 a gallon gasoline, either.

She says the spike in prices is largely due to OPEC countries cutting down oil production levels.

Gasoline prices have followed. In 2015, consumers paid an annual average gasoline price of $2.40 per gallon.

The national average cost of gas as of January 3 is $2.34 per gallon and rising.

And while the early 2017 figures sound less frightening, Patrick DeHaan, the organization’s senior petroleum analyst, wasn’t optimistic about prices dropping back down to last year’s range anytime in the near future. “But if motorists made a resolution to pay less in 2017, they either broke it already or aren’t planning on driving for a while”. That compared with $2.318 a week ago and $2.179 a month ago.

$355 billion will be spent on gasoline in the USA over the course of the year, $52 billion more than last year.

Local residents are seeing the highest gas prices to start a year since 2014. It’s bad to lose the extra spending money, he said, but positive when the job losses are ending and there’s less economic suffering.

“At the end of the year, if you add up your fuel receipts.it’s probably going to add up to $125 to $180 per vehicle”, said DeHaan.

For more information on gas prices and trends, visit Gas Buddy. Pennsylvania will see rates increase to 58.3 cents per gallon, the highest in the country.

Experts in this industry said while OPEC’s decision to cut production is causing prices to rise, the upcoming political change in Washington will limit the affect of this increase.

After flirting with $55 during intraday trading, West Texas Intermediate crude closed Tuesday at $52.52, down just over a dollar per barrel from Monday.