After holding just shy of the $4 a gallon mark for a couple of weeks, the floodgates broke open Monday in Florida with consumers seeing major hikes at the pump.<\/p>\n
Starting mid-morning Monday, some stations across Florida jumped more than 30 cents a gallon with several in Central Florida topping out at $4.29 for a gallon of regular unleaded.<\/p>\n
As of Tuesday morning, the average price across the state sits at $4.12 a gallon, a 20-cent climb since Sunday\u2019s average of $3.96, according to data tracked by AAA.<\/p>\n
\u201cOil prices are doing most of the driving right now,\u201d said AAA spokesperson Mark Jenkins. \u201cAbout half of what drivers pay at the pump comes down to the cost of crude oil. When oil prices spike this quickly and remain volatile, gas prices almost always follow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last week, U.S. crude oil prices had risen to $99.14 per barrel, which had been the highest since July 2022 after a similar global disruption soon after Russia invaded Ukraine. Those prices broke $100 a barrel on Monday amid the latest threats in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
Osceola\u2019s prices lead the region with an average of $4.22 a gallon followed by $4.21 in Orange, $4.19 in Seminole, $4.17 in Lake, $4.16 in Volusia and $4.15 in Polk and Brevard counties.<\/p>\n
The climb in prices has been fueled by the global oil supply disruptions amid conflict in Iran. The average price for gas had not been over $4 in nearly four years, but is now within striking distance of the record high of $4.89 a gallon seen in June 2022. Florida\u2019s prices were at an average of $2.88 at the beginning of March.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s $1.24 climb in a month, which means a 15-gallon fill up costs an extra $18.6.<\/p>\n
Higher gas prices are making Angel Jaramillo drive shorter distances when possible, as filling up his 1996 Dodge Ram now costs about $80.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s like half a day of work for me at least,\u201d said Jaramillo, 19, who works as a car detailer and pours concrete on the side to make some extra money.<\/p>\n
On late Monday afternoon, Jaramillo was filling up the car for one of his clients at a RaceTrac gas station in Apopka, where the price for regular unleaded gas hit $4.29 per gallon. The full tank of gas for his client\u2019s Ford Expedition cost over $150.<\/p>\n
Jaramillo lives in Mount Dora but works in Apopka. His 30-minute commute to work means he has to limit how much he\u2019s driving as much as he can.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t go too far to be honest \u2018cause I know I\u2019m going to have to refill and refill,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The surge in gas prices makes saving money much more difficult. He\u2019s finding himself saving up to get gas \u2013\u2013 \u201ca necessity for everyday life\u201d \u2013\u2013 rather than for school or to buy a newer car.<\/p>\n
Ethan Campbell-Reid isn\u2019t just worried about gas prices. His mind is also on the other items getting pricier as a result, including plane tickets.<\/p>\n
Campbell-Reid makes sure to find the \u201ccheapest quality gas\u201d before pumping. That\u2019s what brought him to a Mobil gas station in Apopka where unleaded gas late Monday cost $3.79.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe gas station up the road is 20 cents more expensive\u2026 the one down the road is probably 10 cents or more expensive,\u201d said Campbell-Reid, who works as a content creator and entrepreneur.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s only driving for necessities now, he said, such as grocery shopping, work or to buy gas.<\/p>\n
More expensive fuel can also push up other spending, from utility bills to the price of many goods consumers buy each day.<\/p>\n
In the immediate future, analysts point to groceries, which have to be restocked frequently and could also see price hikes as businesses\u2019 transportation costs pile up.<\/p>\n
But hauling other cargo and packages has also been impacted. The United Postal Service, for example, is seeking a\u00a0temporary 8% added charge\u00a0on some of its popular products including Priority Mail.<\/p>\n
U.S. diesel prices \u2014 the fuel used for many freight and delivery trucks \u2014 is now going for an average of $5.45 a gallon, up from about $3.76 a gallon before the war began, per AAA.<\/p>\n
If the war drags on, it\u2019s possible that those prices could tick up even higher.\u00a0Most\u00a0tanker movement in the\u00a0key Strait of Hormuz, where roughly one-fifth of the world\u2019s oil typically sails through,\u00a0remains at a halt. That\u2019s led to cuts from major producers in the region who have no way of getting their crude to market. Meanwhile, Iran, Israel and the U.S. have all struck oil and gas facilities, worsening supply concerns.<\/p>\n
In a search for some relief, the International Energy Agency pledged to release 400 million barrels of oil from emergency stockpiles of member nations. That includes the U.S., despite Trump initially downplaying the need for reserve oil.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration has also eased sanctions to free up\u00a0some oil from Venezuela, and\u00a0temporarily Russia. The White House also says it\u2019s waiving maritime shipping requirements under a more than century-old law,\u00a0known as the Jones Act, for 60 days.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not yet clear if those efforts will bring relief for consumers. A lot of factors contribute to gas prices.<\/p>\n
Refineries buy crude oil in advance, meaning some could be work with more expensive oil for a while, and it will take time for any new supply to trickle down to consumers.<\/p>\n
And while steep crude prices are a leading driver behind today\u2019s surge, U.S. gas prices typically tick up a bit at this time of year. More drivers are hitting the road and trying to fuel up while they can, so there\u2019s higher demand. Warming weather also brings a shift to summer blend fuel, which is more expensive to produce than winter blend.<\/p>\n
The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After holding just shy of the $4 a gallon mark for a couple of weeks, the floodgates broke…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[558,29,114,266,115,139,141,140,109,76686,1798],"class_list":["post-212865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-business","tag-florida-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social","tag-social-business","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212865","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=212865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}