Americans Fill Up For $4 a Gallon
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
NEW YORK — The average price of regular gas crept up to $4 a gallon for the first time over the weekend, passing the once-unthinkable milestone just in time for the peak summer travel season.
Prices at the pump are expected to keep climbing, especially after last week’s furious surge in oil prices, which neared $140 a barrel in a record-shattering rally Friday. While Americans who have to drive will feel the biggest squeeze, the increased prices also translate into higher costs for consumers and businesses, who will be forced to shoulder increased costs for food and anything else that needs to be transported.
“I don’t think we’ve felt quite the full impact of $138 or $139 a barrel oil,” co-founder of fuel price research site GasBuddy.com, Jason Toews, said.
Gas prices rolled past their latest threshold yesterday, increasing to $4.005 a gallon overnight from $3.988 the day before, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.
Prices have risen by about 20 cents in the past three weeks, according to a report by the Lundberg Survey released yesterday.
Truckers and others with diesel engines under the hood have it even worse off. A gallon of diesel now sells for $4.762, up nearly a penny overnight, according to AAA and OPIS. Prices hit a record atop $4.79 at the end of May.
