Gas costs continues going up at a record high this summer. However, if a hurricane comes in the next few months at its peak, there’ll be another storm — a price inflation that blows away budgets.
This marks the beginning of hurricane season at a time when the average price of regular unleaded gas costs $3.86 per gallon in Louisiana. Now, gas is being expensed at over $4 gallon. Three years ago, it increased from 17 to 20 percent when Hurricane Katrina hit the Louisiana Gulf Coast in late August 2005, which was followed shortly by Hurricane Rita.
According to Louisiana’s Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association spokesman Larry Wall, there’s not “a crystal ball to predict what prices would be in such a situation.”
“There is no way to tell exactly what prices would be because we don’t know what gas prices are going to look like over the summer” he continues. “It would depend on where the storm came in, how many refineries it took and if, and how long, it would shut down pipelines – there are a lot of variables.”
Stanley O’Quin was pumping gas for his pickup truck last Friday at the Sam’s Club Wholesale in Alexandria. He remembered that gas was 20 cents per gallon, and that had it stay that way; he’d fill his complete tank for what it cost for a gallon today. O’Quin placed the blame on the increasing gas rates on the politicians for not stepping up to fight off inflation.
“No doubt about it – it’s outrageous” commented the 80-year-old Bunkie resident. “I think the politicians are the major cause of it. They need to get off their butts and do their jobs – then it wouldn’t be this way.”
Source: The Town Talk
