NEW YORK — Gas prices rose Friday for the 45th consecutive day as summer travelers are hitting the highways and refineries are holding back on fuel production.
Pump prices added less than a penny overnight to a new national average of $2.639 a gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service.
Gas is 37.2 cents a gallon more expensive than a month ago. Yet prices have risen all year after slumping to about $1.60 in December.
In Denver, prices rose three-tenths of a cent Friday to $2.483 and are 30.8 cents higher than a month ago.
Benchmark crude for July delivery fell 64 cents to settle at $72.04 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the first time oil prices have fallen in several days.
Retail gas typically rises with demand during the summer driving season. But this year those dynamics have changed somewhat. The government expects motorists to drive billions fewer miles as an expanding population of unemployed workers stays home.
That is also why refiners are cutting back. Even though prices are rising, demand for fuel remains weak compared with previous years. Gas prices are still $1.421 a gallon lower than last year at this time.
That may be no consolation to consumers trying to make their dollars go further during this recession, but refiners say if they were to produce as much gasoline as in years past, they’d go out of business.
