The reason for the recent substantial jump in gas prices over the last week is due- in part- to the switchover to summer-blend gasoline, which is still happening this year but just in a different way.
“There is a slight misconception regarding the summer-blend gasoline,” Jim Garrity, AAA East Central spokesman said Tuesday. “It’s not that we’re not switching over to the summer-blend, we still are. But the restrictions have been lessened.”
Garrity says part of what has been in place over the last several years regarding the summer-blend switchover has been environmental, but Butler County does not have environmental restrictions anymore.
However, the switch still happens, as it does everywhere in the country.
“Everywhere in the country has a change this time of year, but there are varying degrees of change,” he said. “We’ve had a pretty intense change in years past, but now it’s been lessened.”
The average price for a gallon of gas in Butler is now $2.85 per gallon, an increase of about a dime in the past week and 50 cents since the beginning of the year. On Tues, Jan. 8, prices were averaging $2.34 per gallon in Butler, according to AAA.
Garrity says another part of the recent increase is due to Pennsylvania “catching up” to the national average for gas, which increased 32 cents since March. In Pennsylvania, prices have increased 23 cents.