The Texas storm brought more to Georgia than alarming headlines: it also brought with it a big jump in gasoline prices.

According to a press release from Montrae Waiters, spokeswoman for AAA – The Auto Club Group, Georgia prices at the pump have jumped six cents over the past week, and 33 cents over the past month.

“Georgia motorists are now paying an average price of $2.57 per gallon for regular unleaded gasoline,” according to the weekly press release.

“Because U.S. crude production was offline due to the Gulf Coast winter storm we can expect gas prices to be impacted,” said Waiters. “Georgians should anticipate pump prices to rise this coming week.”

Why are prices rising?

AAA wrote the following about the reasons for the national spike in gasoline prices:

Since last Monday, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline has increased by 9 cents to $2.72. The national average continues to increase as crude prices march higher. Gas prices have also increased from longer-than-expected refinery outages due to last week’s winter storm that impacted the Gulf Coast. As refineries restart and resume normal operations, supply is expected to increase in impacted areas and should bring stability to pump prices.

At the close of last Thursday’s formal trading session, WTI increased by 31 cents to settle at $63.52 — the highest settlement price since May 2019. Crude prices have increased this week due to growing market optimism that as vaccines become more available, crude demand will recover.

Prices continue to increase despite the Energy Information Administration’s new weekly report revealing that total domestic crude inventories increased by 1.3 million barrels last week, bringing the supply level to 463 million barrels. However, if market optimism continues to increase, crude prices will likely end the week higher.

Cobb County gasoline prices

The average price in Cobb County as of this morning is $2.57, matching the statewide average. 

It is always possible to find lower gas prices than the average by comparison shopping or using tools like http://gasbuddy.com.

How does AAA determine gas prices?

AAA explains it’s methodology for collecting data on gasoline prices at the pump as follows:

AAA updates fuel price averages daily atwww.GasPrices.AAA.com. Every day up to 130,000 stations are surveyed based on credit card swipes and direct feeds in cooperation with the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS) and Wright Express for unmatched statistical reliability. All average retail prices in this report are for a gallon of regular, unleaded gasoline.