Colorado’s 73-cent spike in gas prices from Jan. 22-Feb. 22 may be the largest month-to-month increase in memory, according to one area expert, but a reprieve for Centennial State drivers appears to be right around the bend.
In 2011, gas prices peaked at $3.77 in mid-May and in 2012, the high was a $3.90 average on April 17. According to Wave Dreher, director of communications for AAA Colorado, prices are expected to peak sometime around mid-March this year, and barring potential conflict in the Middle East or hurricanes in the Gulf, this year’s high should be lower than the peak points of the previous two years.
“We were so fortunate at the first of the year to be so far below the national average,” Dreher said. “We are still well below the national average, and everything I’ve read says we have strong supplies here in the Rocky Mountain West.”
According to Dreher, Colorado started the year at an average of $2.99 per gallon, 50 cents less than the national average. But after dropping to $2.85 in mid-January, prices were up to $3.58 per gallon as of Feb. 22. The spike brought Colorado within 20 cents of the national average, but only five states — Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — currently have less expensive gas prices.
In the south metro area, prices are about 3 cents lower than the state average, but the range varies from $3.35 at the Every Day Gas Station in Parker on the low end to $3.80 at the Town Center Drive 7-Eleven in Highlands Ranch. Prices all over the state have been going up every day since they bottomed out in mid-January.
“Sure, I’ve noticed, but what can you do?” asked Jorge Markoss of Castle Rock after pumping over $61 of premium gasoline into his wife’s vehicle at a clip of $3.86 per gallon at the Conoco at Founders Parkway and I-25. “It has been higher in the past.”
Markoss is right too, it has been higher, but the state average — which peaked at $4.09 in July 2008 — was only $3.10 on Feb. 22, 2012, exactly 48 cents less than it was this year on the same date.
Part of the reason for the huge spike, Dreher said, is the earlier-than-usual switch from winter to summer blends nationwide — which causes some refineries to go offline during the switchover. With spring coming earlier in most parts of the country this year, more states are making the switch earlier, which is driving price hikes more quickly as opposed to a slower, more gradual climb.
Colorado is expected to make the switch to summer blends in mid-March, which will jump prices about 10 cents, but after that gas costs should begin to taper off, she said.
