NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Shawn Steward with AAA Kansas notes that even though the summer travel season still has one more major weekend, prices at the pump are going lower.
"The average gas price is $3.56 a gallon, which is down four cents from a week ago," Steward said. "We are slightly higher than we were this time one year ago, but only by a few cents, so we don't anticipate the gas prices being any kind of major issue to deter people from taking a holiday road trip for Labor Day weekend."
Area counties are on either side of the state average and they are expected to stay there, for the most part.
Reno: $3.40
McPherson: $3.31
Harvey: $3.39
Sedgwick: $3.57
Kingman: $3.57
Pratt: $3.72
Stafford: $3.59
Rice: $3.53
"Hurricane Idalia is not expected to impact refineries in the Gulf Coast region," Steward said Wednesday. "Three platforms shut down. If there's power outages in Florida close to where the hurricane made landfall, you obviously can't have gas pumps working without electricity, so there could be some issues for a while until that's resolved."
Unlike Katrina in 2005, this August hurricane most likely won't cause any changes here.
"The major refineries along the Gulf Coast are farther to the west in Louisiana and Texas," Steward said. "There shouldn't be any kind of major impact from a national perspective. We have seen crude oil prices starting to head up this week. We're in the mid $81 per barrel. That's up slightly over what it's been in the past few weeks. I think people are looking at this hurricane, trying to determine what it will mean."
The national gas price average as of Wednesday is $3.83 a gallon.
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