Pain at the pump: gas prices rise 14 cents

Gas prices rose 13.8 cents per gallon in Southern Colorado in the last week, but we’re still paying less than the national average.

“It’s kind of ridiculous. They go up all the time,” said driver Leslie Smith.

“It’s kind of outrageous. 13 cents, diving a little truck it’s not the greatest gas mileage. So I definitely feel the effects of it,” said Curtis Miller.

According to GasBuddy.com, Southern Colorado gas prices are still below the national average. $3.29/gallon in Colorado Springs, $3.27 in Pueblo in comparison to the national average $3.34/gallon in the last week.

“That makes a difference especially when you’re driving about 20 miles to work every day,” said Miller.

Economics Department Chair at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs Dale DeBoer said there are many factors that can cause gas price changes.

“The bad weather in the northeast, their demand has been relatively low,” he said. “Where our weather hasn’t been nearly as bad. So we’ve gotten a little bit more of a Presidents’ Day Weekend surge.”

There is another reason we’re seeing a jump. DeBoer said the per barrel price of oil has gone up. So the cost push on oil prices affects what you pay at the pump.

“I’ll probably go up like five dollars a week, then. And I drive quite a lot. I get gas every week,” said Smith.

“It doesn’t make me happy, but not a whole lot you can do. You need gas,” said driver David Allen.

In the grand scheme of things, the nearly 14 cents is nothing to panic about.

“Even when it jumps 10 cents a gallon,for a 10 gallon tank that’s only a dollar. So relatively speaking, it’s not that big of a price jump,” said DeBoer.

DeBoer said it’s difficult to predict when gas prices will go down again. Even the specialists he said are wrong more often than they’re right.