A Comparison of Gas Prices Across Five States
The price of gas keeps rising, and people are unsure about how to deal with it. Gas is an essential commodity in the country, and some of the states that always have high prices are California, Washington, Alaska, Michigan, Utah, Connecticut, Hawaii, and Oregon. In these states, the gas price almost always hovers around $3.50 per gallon, give or take 10 cents. The reasons behind these soaring gas prices are the government’s policies as well as tensions between the OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exchanging Countries) and Russia, who decided to cut their production of oil drastically in this year.
Some of the aforementioned states have higher state taxes, and this contributes to high gas prices. Virginia, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kansas, Mississippi, and Oklahoma have the cheapest gas prices. The rates fluctuate around $2.70 per gallon in these states.
Following are some of the most expensive states based on our comparison of gas prices.
- California
California, which is also known as the Golden State has the highest gas prices as compared to other states. These high prices are primarily because of the state’s environmental standards which mandate that refineries create a special blend of gasoline. This move leads to a rise in prices when one refinery goes offline for maintenance. The state also adds a high tax on gas, and this causes prices to skyrocket. - Hawaii
The cost of shipping gallons of oil to the refineries (there are two of them) make prices soar in this state. The cost of transportation and other overheads make the gas prices more expensive on this island state. At one point, Hawaii was paying the most for fuel, and even today, the gas prices are around $3.7 per gallon, which makes it one of the highest figures in the country. - Alaska
Alaska has the lowest taxes on gas in the entire country, but the problem is that it does not have the refinery capacity to meet the demand of all citizens. The oil-rich state is trapped in a strange situation as it ships oil to refineries on the West coast. They send back refined gas that is quite expensive as per our gas price comparison index. - Washington
Partly due to legislation, notably the Jones Act, and the fact that Washington imports oil from Alaska with high costs of transportation, the prices of gas in this state are very high. Washington also levies the second-highest state taxes on gas. - Oregon
Oregon drivers cannot pump gas by themselves, so they have to pay attendants to do it. In addition to that, Oregon imports gas from Washington and California. Thus, the gas prices are higher in comparison with other states.
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