An oil refinery bottleneck in California is causing some shock to Utahns’ pocketbooks when it’s time for a fill-up.Rolayne Fairclough is the spokesperson for AAA Utah.
“It really has taken a jump; 40 cents in the last month,” says Fairclough, “In fact, Utah, Wyoming and South Dakota reported the biggest one week growth just last week so we’re seeing some real leaps in our prices here in Utah.”
Fairclough says California’s typically short summer supplies are even more stressed.
“That means the product from this area often times moves to the west coast and so we’re seeing more of it go.”
Fairclough says Utah motorists are paying $2.93 as an average for a gallon of regular. Provo and St. George had the greatest increase at $0.41 and Moab’s was the least at $0.32, according to AAA.
“And we are still significantly lower than we were a year ago but we are closing that gap.”
Fairclough doesn’t rule out the possibility of a drop in prices but with the summer driving season approaching along with the state’s robust economy, she says it’s not likely.
