{"id":185105,"date":"2026-03-10T02:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T02:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/185105\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T02:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T02:55:07","slug":"prices-at-the-pump-surge-in-tampa-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/185105\/","title":{"rendered":"Prices at the pump surge in Tampa Bay"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAND O’ LAKES, Fla. \u2014 An impact from the Iran conflict being felt in Tampa Bay is higher prices at the gas pump<\/a>. <\/p>\n

AAA spokesman Mark Jenkins said the state average price per gallon hit $3.49 Monday\u00a0\u2014 the most expensive since July 2024. Jenkins said it’s hard to say how long the higher prices will last.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

\u00a0Floridians are among the drivers nationwide paying more at the pump as the conflict in Iran leads to increased crude oil prices
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\u00a0According to AAA, the average price per gallon in Tampa Bay was $3.55 Monday
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\u00a0The average price per gallon statewide was $3.49, up from $2.83 one week ago
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Pasco County drivers had different opinions on the increase’s impact, with some saying it will be a hit to their household budgets and others saying they support U.S. actions in Iran and higher costs are a small price to pay<\/p>\n

“It’s been a roller coaster day on the oil market, with oil prices really skyrocketing up to $119 a barrel. If you had asked me at the time where are gas prices going, I would say that they’re probably heading for $4 a gallon,” Jenkins said. “But now, Monday afternoon, they’ve plummeted.”<\/p>\n

That drop hadn’t impacted gas prices yet. Spectrum Bay News 9 found a RaceTrac on State Road 52 where customers paid $3.79 per gallon Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

“I said, ‘Whoa! My God! That’s crazy!'” said driver Tyler Pregi.<\/p>\n

“Wasn’t happy, I’ll say that,” said Brooksville resident Blake Briscoe.<\/p>\n

Briscoe said it cost him $55 to fill his tank Monday, about $20 more than usual. With a 60-mile round trip commute to work, he said higher gas prices will eat into his household budget if they stick around.<\/p>\n

“A good bit. I mean, it’s an extra $50 down the drain that you’ve got to work with every week. I drive a lot for work, too, so it hurts,” he said.<\/p>\n

According to AAA, fuel markets are reacting to traffic coming to a standstill in the Strait of Hormuz due to the conflict in Iran. It said the strait handles 20% of the world’s oil shipments, and the traffic stop is pushing prices higher. <\/p>\n

At the pump, Florida’s state average per gallon surged by 57 cents last week.<\/p>\n

“It’s a small price to pay for the amount of business that’s being taken care of across the globe,” said driver Joshua Watts. “If we’ve got to pay a little extra for groceries and gas this week, so be it. Freedom isn’t cheap.”<\/p>\n

Watts said between hot rods he owns and his business repairing and customizing rims, Rim Jobs LLC, he’s on the road a lot. He said he also served in the Army and supports U.S. action in Iran.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been over there,” Watts said. “I’ve been to a lot of countries over there, and I know firsthand what people here take for granted. People here think they know over there. They don’t know.”<\/p>\n

Pregi told Spectrum Bay News 9 that he’s not worried about the higher prices, yet.<\/p>\n

“At the moment, no,” he said. “Maybe if it keeps going up a little higher, I’ll start to get a little bit more worried.”<\/p>\n

“For drivers, we just have to buckle up and just get ready for the ride,” said Jenkins.<\/p>\n

AAA stated there are steps drivers can take to be more fuel efficient, including avoiding rapid starts and hard braking, maintain steady speeds, and lighten their loads.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAND O’ LAKES, Fla. \u2014 An impact from the Iran conflict being felt in Tampa Bay is higher…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[767,770,21539,115,1338,2718,135,137,136,83151],"class_list":{"0":"post-185105","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-app-community","9":"tag-community-news","10":"tag-iran","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-pasco-county","13":"tag-sarah-blazonis","14":"tag-tampa","15":"tag-tampa-headlines","16":"tag-tampa-news","17":"tag-us-and-iran"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}