CLEVELAND — With GasBuddy reporting that gas prices are up this week in Northeast Ohio, people are wondering why that’s happening.
THE QUESTION
So today, we’re VERIFYING: Is the current gas price increase exclusively due to gas stations switching from selling winter blend to summer blend gas?
SOURCES
Our sources for this answer are:
- the Clean Air Act,
- the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and
- the American Automobile Association (AAA) Director of Public Affairs Jim Garrity.
THE EXPLANATION
Under the Clean Air Act, gasoline refineries are required to make two blends of gas — one for the summer and one for the winter.
The EPA requires that refineries switch to producing summer blend gasoline by May 1, and that it be sold in gas stations between June 1 and September 15.
June 1 is just the latest possible date for gas stations to start selling it, though. They can sell it sooner, and most do.
AAA’s Jim Garrity explained to us that refineries will often start producing summer grade gasoline as early as February, which means it can hit gas pumps where you fill up much sooner than June 1.
Garrity said: “In our region, summer blend gasoline should have made its way to the majority of gas stations, if not all of them, by now.”
The way Garrity described it, It’s not like a switch that flips during the week before Memorial Day, sending gas prices higher
That is to say, the expected seasonal increase in gas prices has likely already ramped it’s way up, and has already been in effect.
THE ANSWER
So we can VERIFY that the current gas price increase in Northeast Ohio is not exclusively due to gas stations switching from selling winter blend to summer blend.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
There are a lot of factors that go into the price you pay for gas at the pump. AAA told us gas prices in our region are very much in line with what we saw in 2023, and no where near the highest record gas price on record in Ohio, which was $5.06 per gallon in early June of 2022.