The latest fuel price survey from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources doesn’t contain any better news about increasing gas prices. The D-N-R’s Jim Bodensteiner, says conditions well outside of Iowa are keeping prices up.
Bodensteiner says the value of the dollar against the Euro and speculation in commodities like oil are keeping the price of gas up. Bodensteiner says it all translates into less gas for your dollar at the pump.
He says the average retail price for a gallon of 10 percent ethanol was three-dollars and 40 cents, compared to three dollars and 13 cents last month. That’s an eight-point-six percent increase.
The month to month increase in the survey saw some big variances, with the lowest increase at 19 cents in Iowa City, and the largest 36 cents in Dubuque. Bodensteiner isn’t sure why there’s such a big difference.
He says Des Moines has a pretty competitive convenience store market that impacts prices, but Bodensteiner says he doesn’t think he’s seen such a big difference in prices in the past and can’t say why that is.
Bodensteiner also can’t give any hope against those who have already predicted gas prices will hit four dollars a gallon. Bodensteiner says with crude oil prices staying high, and summer driving demand picking up, it’s possible to see gas hit four dollars a gallon. The national average price of a gallon of gas hit three dollars and 56 cents Thursday.