Pain at the pump: Gas price hike continues in Colorado Springs

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) - You would have to go back to 2014 to pay as much for gas as you are this summer.

Drivers are shelling out $3.50 a gallon at the pump in Colorado Springs, a whopping $1.07 higher than this time a year ago. It’s eight cents higher than just two weeks ago.

Elsewhere in the state, prices have left $4 far behind, as seen in the below map published Tuesday:

For comparison, this is what July 19 looked like in Colorado Springs over the last several years (information from GasBuddy):

July 19, 2020: $2.44/gallon

July 19, 2019: $2.57/gallon

July 19, 2018: $2.74/gallon

July 19, 2017: $2.12/gallon

July 19, 2016: $2.15/gallon

July 19, 2015: $2.69/gallon

July 19, 2014: $3.57/gallon

And don’t count on prices dropping anytime soon -- or even just leveling off. Numbers are expected to keep climbing until at least the end of August, AAA warns.

There are several reasons for the gas price hike, not least the increase in travel in this post-vaccine summer.

“Gasoline demand over the holiday weekend certainly did not disappoint as millions of Americans flooded the roads for the long weekend, guzzling down gasoline at a clip not seen in years, and in the process, we could have set new all-time records for consumption,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy.

Other factors include the reopening of businesses and the usual culprit, rising oil prices.

On average, it costs more to get gas in Colorado than elsewhere in the U.S.; the state average is currently $3.53 a gallon, versus $3.17 nationally.

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