Get ready for gasoline prices to spike. How high will they go? We’ll tell you
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Why are Idaho gas prices so high?
We take a look a the current issues around Idaho’s soaring gas prices, and a new state law that erodes the protections against price gouging.
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For anyone west of Nebraska, it’s no surprise that gasoline prices are highest in the West. Unless you’re in Wyoming, Colorado or New Mexico.
If it’s any consolation for Gem State drivers, the price remained steady the past three weeks and dropped 2 cents a gallon over the past month. And seven Western states have higher gas prices than Idaho’s average $3.52 for a gallon of regular gas.
Skyrocketing crude oil prices and the deteriorating political situation in Ukraine are soon expected to send prices soaring. On Tuesday, the price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil sold for $92.94, a jump of $1.87 from Friday and $33.90 from a year ago. Oil rose to its highest level since 2014 after Russia sent troops to two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine.
President Joe Biden warned Tuesday that the new sanctions being placed on Russia may cause gas prices to rise, but said his administration is taking steps to keep prices down.
“As I said last week, defending freedom will have costs for us as well and here at home. We need to be honest about that,” Biden said at the White House.
The national average price of a gallon of gas, $3.53, was the highest in eight years. That’s 5 cents higher than a week earlier and 21 cents higher than the month before, according to AAA.
Idaho’s price equaled the national average, but was significantly higher than the $3.40 charged in neighboring Wyoming, 5 cents more than Colorado. New Mexico had gas for $3.49, while the average price in Utah was $3.41.
While AAA tracks gasoline costs by averaging pump prices across a city and the state, GasBuddy, a nationwide tracking service, provides selling prices at individual stations. The price reported Tuesday by Gas Buddy at Costco stores in Boise and Nampa was $3.39 per gallon, but $3.43 at Costco in Meridian. Costco in Coeur d’Alene was selling regular for $3.24 a gallon.
AAA reported an average price of $3.60 per gallon in Boise, $3.61 in Twin Falls and $3.36 in Coeur d’Alene.
GasBuddy predicts gas prices could reach $4 a gallon by this spring. That’s based on predictions for coronavirus recovery and increased demand before additional oil supplies arrive later in the year.
“While Americans are likely to see higher prices in 2022, it’s a sign that the economy continues to recover from COVID-19,” Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said in a news release. “The higher prices go, the stronger the economy is.”
Signs point to gas prices remaining higher this year until reaching a point where suppliers furnish added inventory, he said.
Seven of the 10 states where gas prices were highest Tuesday are in the West. Idaho sits at No. 19, eight spots lower than last week. California topped the list of Western states at $4.74 a gallon, followed by Hawaii at $4.52, Oregon at $3.99 and Washington at $3.98. New York was at $3.75, while Pennsylvania was at $3.74 and Illinois was at $3.69.
Not only does California pay the most for gasoline, it also has a high state gas tax, 51 cents per gallon. Washington’s gas tax is 49 cents, while Oregon collects 36 cents and Utah takes in 32 cents. Idaho collects 33 cents per gallon. The federal government collects 18.3 cents in federal gas taxes.
“Washington, Oregon and California are much more populated than we are,” Matthew Conde, spokesperson for AAA Idaho, said by phone. “When you start adding population and the demand pressure there and you add the state tax that’s higher than ours, you see a pattern where those prices are going to be higher.”
This story was originally published February 22, 2022 at 3:30 PM.
