After Spring Swoon, Gas Prices Are Rising Again

Scott Detrow

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Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

August 17, 2012 | 12:00 PM

Scott Detrow / StateImpact Pennsylvania

Gas prices declined this spring, but have been rising since early July

The average cost of a gallon of gasoline has increased by more than 30 cents since July 1. In this report for NPR, I take a look at the factors behind the increase, and whether or not prices will keep going up.

If you plot out a chart of 2012’s average gasoline prices, you get what looks like a roller coaster. There’s a steady increase from January to April, the spring peak around $4 per gallon, and then a steady decline in May and June.
By the beginning of July, the national average was hovering around $3.42.
But since then, that roller coaster chart has been heading into its second big climb. Prices have been going up since July 1, and are now approaching $3.80.
So, many drivers are now wondering if we should soon expect to pay even more — or if we’re near the peak.
Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service, thinks it’s a short-term problem.
“This is something you’ll have to put up with for a few weeks, maybe more if you’re on the West Coast,” he says. “But certainly not in the majority of the country.”