Even Buc-ee’s and Sam’s Club are not much relief anymore: the two mega gas stations at I-95 and LPGA Boulevard in Daytona Beach had consistently beaten regional prices by 40 cents a gallon or more in recent weeks.
But even that advantage has narrowed as Buc-ee’s today was selling regular unleaded for $4.85 a gallon, and Sam’s for $4.82, not much better than the $4.89 at the two RaceTracs and Wawa on State Road 100 in Palm Coast this morning: a trip to Buc-ee’s would wipe out the savings.
No gas station in Palm Coast was selling gas at $5 a gallon yet, but close: the Mobil station on State Road 100 was one penny away from the threshold, according to Gas Buddy, the pricing app. All others were a dime under that, with Palm Coast Parkway a universal $4.89 alley, a price that appeared to stick at most stations north and south, the Florida average as of this weekend and today. It was 13 cents higher than a week ago.
Nationally, however, the average price for for a gallon of gas exceeded $5 for the first time: 21 states saw their averages cross into $5 territory. In Florida, the further south one drives, the higher the prices, with prices of $5-a-gallon or more starting around Jupiter, if only in spots: in most stations, the price remains closer to the state average.
Share prices on Wall Street continued to tumble today, entering bear-market territory, meaning that share prices have lost 20 percent of their value since January, with one notable exception: Big Oil.
Despite dropping slightly in the last few days, Exxon Mobil stock is up 57 percent since January. Shell is up 30 percent. BP, which had struggled for years because of its Deepwater Horizon oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, was up 19 percent since January. And Chevron was up 44 percent since January. Curiously, Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, was up only 21 percent.
Florida gas prices are now 65 percent more expensive than a year ago, according to AAA, the auto club. On average it costs $72 to fill an average-sized 15-gallon tank of gas. That’s $28 more than what drivers paid this time last year. Although the state average remains below $5 a gallon, drivers in South Florida are already beginning to see regular unleaded prices above $5.
Much of the blame, misplaced though it’s been, has gone to the Biden administration, which has little to nothing to do with gas prices: neither its energy policy nor its economic policy have had a bearing on the price of oil, which has gone up around the planet, with gas selling at much higher prices in Europe, for example.
Biden has indirectly helped push prices up by successfully initiating a partial oil embargo on Russia, the world’s third-largest oil producer, but only as retaliation for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Americans by very large margins support opposing the Russian invasion with sanctions and weaponry. The support has remained constant. But it contradicts diminishing support for Biden, who is paying a heavy price for the higher gas prices and associated inflation.
The prices have provoked flare-ups of folkloric responses, like the Massachusetts gas station owner who decided to quit after 48 years in the business, claiming he didn’t “want to be part of it anymore” as he blamed ExxonMobil for driving up the price. Or the Minnesota gas station owner who posted a sign saying “We hate our gas prices too” (but did not quit). Or the California motorist who must’ve felt like he was in a time-warp as a pump mistakenly showed the price to be 69 cents a gallon.
Regional Prices
- Most expensive metro markets – West Palm Beach – Boca Raton ($5.01), Fort Lauderdale ($4.93), Port St. Lucie ($4.92)
- Least expensive metro markets – Crestview-Fort Walton Beach ($4.68), Pensacola ($4.69), Panama City ($4.73)
- Check metro gas price averages at GasPrices.AAA.com
“The unprecedented pain at the pump continues to worsen after oil prices reached new multi-month highs, last week,” said Mark Jenkins, spokesman, AAA – The Auto Club Group. “The reason remains the same – ongoing concerns that global fuel supplies can not keep pace with rising fuel demand. Oil production was already tight coming out of the pandemic. Now competition for fuels has increased, as most of the world seeks alternatives to Russian output. The uncertainty about when conditions when normalize has kept upward momentum on prices at the pump.
“The continued uncertainty surrounding global supply and demand has made it extremely difficult to pin down any realistic expectations on when drivers will see meaningful relief from sky high gas prices,” Jenkins continued. “The Florida average price for gasoline is likely to exceed $5 a gallon this summer, if not before the end of June. From there, drivers should expect gas prices to continue fluctuating throughout the rest of the year.”
On Wednesday, the U.S. price of crude oil reached a 3-month high of $122.11 per barrel, but finished the week slightly lower. Friday’s settlement of $120.67 per gallon is nearly $2 more than the week before.
| Gas Price Overview | Oil Price Overview |
| Sunday’s Avg. Price – $4.89 per gallon
Cost for a Full Tank – $72 (15 gallons) 2022 High – $4.89 per gallon (June 12, 2022) 2021 High – $3.36 per gallon (Nov. 2021) Record High – $4.89 per gallon |
Friday’s U.S. Oil Price – $120.67 per barrel
Previous Week’s Closing Price – $118.87 per barrel 2022 High – $123.70 (Mar. 8, 2022) 2021 High – $84.65 per barrel (Oct. 2021) Record High – $145.29 per barrel (July 2008) |
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Jimbo99 says
Meanwhile, Russia has replaced McDonald’s with the same quality food for lower prices, while inflation makes a Happy meal a miserable experience in the USA. Ice cream machines that are operational. That moment when you realize Putin > Biden. Yet another Biden success story. A sad day when US leadership has slipped to the level of Biden. Keep on saving Democracy Joe.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/former-mcdonalds-stores-russia-just-171421097.html
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/mcdonalds-russia-reopens-no/2022/06/12/id/1074023/
Bob J says
Same quality food? is it. If the company closed the franchise, it not the same food. Just a hacked copy for looks. It is not McDonalds products. Lower prices, quality food. None of which relates to why you complain about the Happy Meal. I think you need to spend some time in Russia and see that you will find you are better off here.
A.j says
We continue to travel. Time to buy oil stocks.
ULTRA MAGA says
When Biden shut down the XL Keystone Pipeline and Oil drilling in federal lands, than the price of gasoline started to increase! Biden’s energy Policy is DESTROYING America’s Economic!
Ray W. says
Of all the misleading comments on this issue, yours is one of the most misleading.
Once again, when the northern leg of the XL pipeline was proposed in 2006, a southern leg was also proposed. The northern leg was to go through the Nebraska sand hills region that lies over the Ogalalla water aquifer. The Canadian tar sands oil, which is relatively thick, has to be diluted with a highly toxic chemical to be transported through any pipeline, so the pipeline has to be built with specialized steel that resists chemical degradation from the highly toxic chemical. The chemical is shipped to Canada via rail tanker, which tankers also use the specialized steel construction. If the northern leg of the XL pipeline were to rupture for any reason in any area of the sand hills, the highly toxic chemical would quickly enter into the aquifer through the sand and impact untold thousands of farmers who rely on the aquifer to water their crops. Initially, it was proposed that a roughly 75-mile detour around the sand hills region would remove the environmental issue, but the Canadian energy company chose to use political means to get the pipeline approved, as opposed to simply detouring around the sand hills.
After the initial application for the northern leg occurred, a new fracking compound was patented, and fracking became much more competitive an option. North Dakota crude oil production, hovering in the 100,000 barrel per day range for years, quickly rose to well over 1 million barrels of crude oil per day.
The southern leg of the XL pipeline was opened some seven or eight years ago. Prior to its opening, the North Dakota oil had to be transported to refineries by rail, which is a more expensive option compared to pipeline transport. The southern leg was filled with North Dakota oil on day one and has been ever since. American energy companies reap the benefits from the pipeline transport. If the northern leg were ever built, the Canadian oil would immediately displace the North Dakota oil and American energy companies would have to pay more to transport their oil to Houston raising our prices for North Dakota crude oil.
Plus, as you typed your comment, the pipeline would not yet be completed, as it was less than 10 miles into its lengthy construction process from Canada to Nebraska when it was stopped. The southern leg took years to build from Nebraska to Houston.
In sum, the cancellation of the northern leg of the XL pipeline has absolutely nothing to do with today’s gasoline prices. OPEC cut crude oil production over a year ago and Russian oil is subject to embargo. Those two reasons are the primary cause of our rising gasoline prices.
Please, ULTRA MAGA, use some intellectual rigor when you begin to type a comment. You are not just wrong, you are wronger than wrong, though I suppose the northern leg of the XL pipeline issue will continue to falsely resonate among the most gullible among us.
coyote says
Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.
IMYellowstone says
I know you are not insinuating Biden is the single cause of increased prices. Just look at what a few other countries are paying.
These are the most expensive. The least expensive is in third-rate countries.
The price of a gallon of gas in US dollars:
Hong Kong $10.966
Norway $9.643
Denmark $9.323
The central African Republic $9.031
Monaco $8.938
Finland $8.894
Iceland $8.755
Greece $8.709
The Netherlands $8.582
Singapore $8.399
Denali says
You morons are so boring. When will you realize that the President cannot control oil prices. You and I have more control by how much fuel we consume. If we keep buying at these absurdly high prices, they will keep charging more. Big oil will run up the prices to whatever level the consumer will pay. The Keystone Pipeline, which still would not yet be completed, had nothing to do with US gas prices. It was to transport Canadian sand and shale oils to the Gulf Coast for shipment overseas. The oil lease slow down was prompted by the big oil companies buying up leases and sitting on them. Apparently they had no need for more leases.
In the early 70’s we had high gas prices because OPEC slowed down the flow. In ’08 and today the problem is not quantity, it is greed. There is more oil / gas available today than we can use. There is no shortage to drive the price, it is pure simple greed of the speculators and big oil.
Big oil has had record profits and what do they do? Raise prices higher because we will pay more, use the profits to buy back their open stock to increase the wealth of their big investors and reduce exploration/production. All the while receiving huge subsidies from the federal government.
Mikem says
Thank you , Joe Biden. Everything you do is screwed up. Obama was right. “Never underestimate Joe’s ability to f*** things up.” I wonder how many on the blue side regret voting for this nitwit ? God help us until we get to the next elections.
Gary R says
Joe Biden lives in a fantasy world.