Over the past two days, the price of gas has jumped nearly five percent — or just under 20 cents — thanks to the damage caused by Hurricane Ike to Texas area oil refineries.
Even though nobody’s particularly happy about the jump in gas prices, things certainly could have been a lot worse. For example, today’s national average gas price of $3.83 is up just slightly over the past week ($3.65) and month ($3.77).
However, it’s not as if all news is good news: today’s gas price is nearly 40% higher than it was at this time last year ($2.78). Also, there are now 11 states reporting an average gas price above $4 per gallon. Of these 11 states, seven are located in the southeastern part of the country.