Gas prices have been going up for the past three and a half years and it doesn’t look like the trend will change. The first was that there is a state tax on gas. Because state tax is higher in some states and lower in others the gas prices vary across the nation. On average, state taxes add about 19 percent to the actual gas prices.
Different regions will generally have higher prices than others. For example the western states have higher fuel costs than the southeastern states. “This is ridiculous,” says Jonathan Brinkley, a graduate student. “Those things have been going on well before 2002. It’s Bush. He owns refineries, now what does that tell you?”
With Texas being in the southwest, the state taxes aren’t as high as the states going farther to the West. The next reason that I had found was that in 2004 new air regulations had been put in place on the refineries. These regulations are forcing the refineries to produce low-sulfur fuels.
With them having to do this, the refineries aren’t producing more fuel but are spending more money on cleaning the fuel and thus, causing the cost of gas to rise. There are many more reasons but those were just a couple.
So after finding out why, a few students, both commuter and resident, shared how they felt about the gas prices.
“I commute,” senior Rhonda Luckadue said and with the gas prices being so high, it keeps me from wanting to go to my classes.”
Others who live on campus say that they just walk to their classes instead of driving. “I walk everywhere now, I don’t even like to go to the store when I need something,” says sophomore Nikki Gertnan.
The national average now is $2.60 and the Texas average is $2.57 compared to last year’s national average of $1.87 and Texas average of $1.76. The question now is, when will these gas prices go back down?