Gas prices have started to soar within this last week, increasing to about $2.87 throughout the country. While Cincinnati has an average of $2.89, the highest amount in the United States right now is in California with $3.86.

Because of the increase of people leaving their houses due to COVID-19 numbers decreasing, the demand for gas is much higher than it was when the pandemic started.

The people in charge of looking at the increase and decrease of gasoline said that they do not expect the average price of gas to reach 3 dollars because of the new COVID cases arising in Europe.

Because of the rise in cases that means that another lockdown could be put in place to stop the spread yet again.

There is also some talk going around that maybe the Suez Canal is responsible for the rise in price.

There was a ship that ended up blocking the Suez Canal, a big place where shipping goods occurs, and it left other ships stuck on the canal as well.

After about a week, the ship finally was freed from its position. This is good news because if the ship was still stuck it would create even more problems for the shipping industry.

There are many people who are upset about the new prices and hope that it will go down as soon as possible.

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/24/world/middleeast/suez-canal-blocked-ship.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/03/24/gas-prices-surge-2-87-gallon-more-consumers-hit-road/6980832002/