The nationwide average for a gallon ticked just above $5, a record, according to auto club AAA. The average price jumped 18 cents in the previous week, and was $1.92 higher than this time last year. Several factors are coming together to push gasoline prices higher. Global oil prices have been rising unevenly, but sharply overall. The U.S. capacity to turn oil into gasoline is down 900,000 barrels of oil per day since the end of 2019. Some refineries that produce gasoline, jet fuel, diesel and other petroleum products shut down during the first year of the pandemic, when demand collapsed. Workers in the retail and retail-food industry can’t work from work, they must commute by car or public. . . .
Read more at www.washingtonpost.com