Many northern Illinois drivers are kicking themselves today for not gassing up earlier this week. Gas prices throughout the Midwest have skyrocketed over the past two days.
Just a couple of days ago, the average price of a gallon of gas in Illinois was $2.60 and falling. In fact, it was 30 cents cheaper than a month earlier. Experts predicted the price plummet to continue throughout the month, thanks to lower crude oil prices and the nation’s refineries firing on all cylinders. Oops. On Tuesday, people started doing double-takes at the gas pumps. Prices had shot up 10, 20, 30 cents a gallon. The long summer slide was over.
So who’s to blame? Analysts are pointing the finger at Whiting, Indiana. That’s the home of the largest oil refinery in the Midwest. BP has shut down its largest “distillation unit” for unplanned repairs, reducing capacity to 44%. It’s expected to take more than a week to fix…and experts expect prices to continue to climb.
