Gas Prices Continue To Rise In Pittsburgh Area

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — It’s the first of May, the temperature is rising and so are gas prices.

Rising like a well-watered weed, the prices are climbing and the search is on for cheaper gas again.

Jim Tempert is going online, “It’s crazy you know I get on the gas buddy and try find the cheapest gas.”

Kelley Fischer did the searching in her car and saw it all, “$3.19, $3.15, and this is the cheapest $3.09 so I’m here.”

That price may be a real bargain within twenty four hours the way things are going.

Don Bowers is a Senior Vice President with Countywide Petroleum and with the Petroleum Retailers Association.

“The prices from yesterday to today in Allegheny county are up 14-15 cents a gallon and that’s our cost up 14-15 cents.” He adds the cost of a gallon tomorrow in Allegheny County is going to tack on another seven cents,” Bowers said.

Geno Chiarelli lives in Bridgeville but spends a lot of time working south.

“I’m down in Morgantown a lot of work and down there its real cheap and up here it’s always over $3.10.”

The Petroleum Retailers say that disparity is going to grow because the major oil companies are now bringing in the more expensive RVP 7.8 or summer blend gasoline.

Right now only Allegheny County has failed to get EPA permission to drop summer gas so the oil companies are forced to bring in the more expensive fuel and begin the changeover today. That’s why prices have spiked.

Right now the difference between the cost of gas going into Allegheny County gas stations and the surrounding counties is about a nickel per gallon and Bowers expected that disparity to grow, “I think you can look up to 50-cents per gallon difference.”

Fischer says that’s like opening a drain at the bottom of your wallet, “It’s killing me I’ve got college students to get back and forth, they go to work, I work, its expensive.”

Chiarelli agrees,”It’s like $40 compared to $35 before and every time you fill up it adds up.”

Your neighborhood gas station may not have been hit by the price spike yet but rest assured it will come with the next tanker truck that rolls in to fill the stations tanks.