But the auto club says they’re lower than at this time last year.
Gasoline prices in the region have reached an all time high for 2016. AAA-Mid-Atlantic says the average cost of filling up in Maryland has reached $2.27 per gallon, a four-cent increase. Nationally, the average is also $2.27 per gallon, a jump of six-cents.
“Crude oil costs have been rising,” says AAA spokeswoman Christine Delise. “We saw crude oil hit a new high for 2016. It’s been trading for $48 per barrel for the last couple of days.”
She says this upward trend in crude oil prices is due to a number of factors. “It really is a result of the wildfires in Canada and supply disruptions in other oil producing countries,” Delise says.
The town of Fort McMurray in the Canadian province of Alberta has been ravaged by a wildfire. It forced more than 80,000 residents to evacuate their homes. The area is known for the oil sands industry. Now reports have come in that the fire has spread to neighboring Saskatchewan province.
But AAA says these prices are lower compared to last year at this time. The auto club says the average cost of filling up in Maryland in May, 2015, was $2.68 per gallon. Nationally, it was $272. per gallon in May of last year.
Delise says there is some good news in all of this when it comes to gasoline prices. “They tend to go up usually before Memorial Day. Sometimes we’ve seen prices continue prices raising into July 4th,” she says. But Delise says it all depends on volatility of the price of oil. “It’s just a waiting game. We have to wait to see how crude oil trends.”