NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Even as the nation sets a record high for gas prices, it's not that way in Kansas or Reno County.
"Reno County today is at $3.93 a gallon on average," said Shawn Steward with AAA Kansas on Tuesday. "A little bit less than the statewide average. Kansas is at $3.96. That's up 17 cents in the past week, up 28 cents from a month ago."
Kansas is the fourth least expensive state for gas.
"Prices just continue to rise," Steward said. "This is due to high crude oil prices, volatility on the global market and gas demand has stayed strong and has been on the rise of late. With summer travel season coming up, we don't anticipate demand for gas falling anytime soon. We anticipate it to be a very busy travel season, despite the high gas prices."
Though AAA's official forecast for Memorial Day won't come out until later, Steward anticipates it to be much closer to pre-pandemic than the last couple of years.
"They're just ready to travel," Steward said. "People love to travel in general. Many people have limited or strongly curtailed their travel over the past couple of years, or didn't travel at all, because of the pandemic or for whatever reason. They just didn't feel comfortable doing so."
It doesn't appear as if the mitigating measures tried by the Biden administration have been effective in keeping gas prices down to this point.