World events are pointing to prices at the pump remaining at or just under four dollars a gallon for the foreseeable future according to AAA. Currently the price for a gallon of regular in the New Orleans Metro sits at $3.96, up 0.048 cents in the last week, but still below the high of $4.18 a gallon set in March.
AAA spokesman Don Redman told WWL that as long as the Russian Invasion of Ukraine drags on, and much of the west rejects Russian energy, crude prices, and thus gas prices at the pump, will stay up. Redman said the EU is even set to vote on potentially banning all Russian energy imports.
“Europe relies heavily on natural gas and petroleum products from Russia and if members vote on that ban it is going to put an increase on an already very tight market for crude oil,” said Redman, who noted that’s not the only factor pushing up prices. “You also have OPEC saying that really are not going to rush any production, add more oil to the market, citing the lockdowns in China as reasons not to increase production.”
Redman warns gas prices this high for this long are a real problem, and the last time we saw it was right before the Great Recession.
“Right now we seem to be absorbing them as best as we can and the economic growth has slowed but it is still growing, the concern though is that sustained high prices for energy products is suddenly going to start having a very negative effect on the economy,” said Redman.
