Pennsylvania Gas Prices Approach $4-A-Gallon

• Scott Detrow
  BioRecent Stories

  

  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.

Gasoline prices steadily decreased from April through June, but began to tick upward in early July.
When StateImpact Pennsylvania covered this trend last month, we quoted experts predicting a September price decrease, barring a gulf coast hurricane or global unrest affecting crude oil prices. Both events have since come to pass. And although the Energy Information Agency called Hurricane Isaac’s impact on the natural gas market “negligible,” the storm did lead to an increase in gasoline prices.
Now, as Fuel Fix reports, violence in northern Africa is impacting gas prices, along with the Federal Reserve’s recent fiscal action:

It was a double whammy for oil markets, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service.
“There’s increased tension in the Arab world, and you also have the espresso shot of monetary stimulus,” Kloza said.
In its latest effort to jump-start the lethargic U.S. economy, the Fed announced it would buy $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities each month with no set end date, a policy that could drive dollars into the market and boost spending.
The move could weaken the dollar, on which crude prices are based, making oil a cheaper buy in other currencies.”

In Pennsylvania, a gallon of regular gas is selling for an average price of $3.96. That’s 27 cents higher than the average price in mid-August, according to AAA.
What factors contribute to the price of gasoline? Click here for more information.

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