CANTON, New York (WWNY) – The price of a gallon of gas in St. Lawrence County has breached the $4 mark.
A gallon was priced at $4.09 in Canton and Potsdam Wednesday.
Prices have risen steadily for the last three weeks. Back on July 27, AAA reported a gallon was $3.76.
Motorists are getting a dose of sticker shock at the pumps.
“This fall we leave to go to Florida as we do every year and traveling south it does get cheaper, but it’s expensive – very expensive. It just cost me eighty-five dollars to fill my car,” said Kathy Wright.
A representative of AAA said several factors contribute to the increase.
Summer vacations are an obvious one – more people are driving longer distances, so the demand for gas goes up.
And this summer, extreme heat in the south has played an important role.
“We saw really high temperatures across the country and that was preventing some of the refineries to operate at normal levels,” said Valerie Puma of AAA.
“In recent weeks, we have seen that those refineries are getting back to the swing of things, but we could be seeing maybe some gas stations are still using the gasoline they bought at a higher price,” Puma said.
Statewide, gas prices average $3.88, compared to $4.30 this time last summer. That’s according to GasBuddy.
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