BRAZOS COUNTY, Texas — The AAA announced on Thursday that the national gas average is just shy of $5. This is the highest average triple a has tracked for Texas.
This upward trend is something experts have been tracking for the past few months.
Stemming from a variety of factors but the top main issue is the increase in demand as supply becomes harder to come by.
”You have all of this demand surging back at the same time that you have supply literally being taken off the market and so that’s economics 101, going to cause prices to go up,” said Daniel Armbruster, spokesperson AAA Texas.
Meanwhile, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused the supply to decrease.
"That is the issue that has caused the prices we see today with Russia's war against Ukraine is by far the biggest factor," said Armbruster.
Armbruster says Russia has a large supply of global crude oil that they were contributing to the global market until the invasion.
But what Armbruster refers to ass the initial kicker is COVID-19.
"Another thing contributing to higher prices in addition to Russia's invasion in Ukraine is COVID19. The supply chain issues COVID has created are impacting oil and gas," added Armbruster.
Today’s national average is $1.90 higher than this time last year.
Experts say it doesn’t look like this will get better anytime soon. But there are ways to offset the increase.
Like monitoring driving behavior to avoid quick acceleration, speeding, and utilizing cruise control.