Gasoline prices start the year at a high — and rising
By Ronald D. White, Los Angeles Times
January 6, 2012
Not only are we worrying about the end of the world in 2012 — thanks, Maya calendar makers — but this also may be the year of the gas-pocalypse, analysts warn. That's because gasoline prices are the highest ever for the start of the year, and they're on the rise, supercharged by expensive oil and changes in refinery operations.
In California, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.666 on Thursday, up 8.1 cents from a week earlier and up 33.1 cents from a year earlier, which had been a record price for this time of year, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. Nationally, a gallon of regular was averaging $3.319, up 6.5 cents from a week earlier. That topped 2011's record-setting start by 24.2 cents a gallon.
It's the wrong way to kick off the new year, said Susan Sutter of Anaheim, who has seen the price of a gallon of gasoline at her local Arco station rise 18 cents, to $3.49, in the last week.
"I'm just appalled," said Sutter, 54, who drives a Honda Civic sedan. Sutter's ire wasn't cooled by the fact that she was paying quite a bit less than the state average.
"I just hate these prices," she said. "Someone is lining their pockets, and it sure isn't me."
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http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gas-prices-20120106,0,2326955.story
Just in time for the 2012 Elections!
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