Stateline Gas Prices Up Over 40 Cents in the Last Month

ROCKFORD - Like it or not, gas prices are up significantly in the city of Rockford.  According to GasBuddy.com, the average price for a gallon of regular gas in the Forest City is $3.64.  It was just a week ago those prices were 20 cents cheaper and 40 cents cheaper a month ago.    

"I think they're high all over, but we try to stay competitive," said Linda Heavlin, manager at the Shell Station on West State Street.

Heavlin says her customers are talking about the price of gas all the time, and she says they don't know what to make of the spike at the pump.

"You get the people that are optimistic that say, 'Oh, you know at least it's not going up any farther,' or 'you're only three cents higher or lower than somewhere else I've been,'" said Heavlin.

"But then you get the others that may have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed."

Nationwide, gas prices are at an average of $3.54 per gallon, up 18 cents in just one week, but the national average doesn't even compare to the price of gas in Rockford.

"We're seeing pretty significant price increases all across the country, but the most notable that we've seen looks like it's in the Great Lakes region," said Gregg Laskoski, senior gas analyst at GasBuddy.com.

Laskoski says California is the only state outside of the Great Lakes area that has seen price increases on the same level.  He says the price increase is partly due to the federally mandated switch from winter blend fuels to summer blend fuels.  That switch has petroleum refineries having less of that winter blend fuel, creating a smaller supply with the same demand.  Laskoski says the blend switch coupled with rising crude oil prices creates that pinch at the pump.

"Late last week we saw crude oil close around $98 a barrel, and today it's trading close to $97, but even at the current level it's at a position that we haven't seen since May of last year," said Laskoski.

Those rising gas prices are changing the way drivers are filling up says Heavlin.

"I'm seeing a lot more of the twenty dollars, twenty dollars, rather than a fill up," said Heavlin.

"When the prices do drop, then we get more of the 'go ahead and fill the tank.'"

Unfortunately prices aren't expected to drop much soon.  Gas price forecasters are saying gas should be flirting with $4.00 per gallon again by springtime.