CHICAGO (WKZO-AM) — Gas prices have jumped 20 cents a gallon in southwest Michigan just days before Christmas.
While the timing may stink, given all the families who are about to hit the road for grandma’s house, Patrick DeHaan with GasBuddy.com says there are real market forces at work that have driven up prices throughout the Great Lakes states.
He discounts the idea that gas distributors are just trying to nick the public for higher prices because they know that a record number of them will be traveling this weekend.
DeHaan said it began when OPEC announced it would be curtailing production to increase crude oil prices. He says the situation was made worse regionally because the intensely cold weather caused problems at some Chicago-area refineries.
The average price for a gallon of regular on Wednesday was $2.42 in Kalamazoo, $2.44 in Grand Rapids and $2.43 in Lansing.
