According to the weekly press release from Montrae Waiters, spokeswoman for AAA-The Auto Club Group, Georgia gas prices  increased at the pump by an average of 21 cents over the past week.

The average price for a gallon of unleaded gasoline in Georgia is now $2.96.

According to the press release: “Georgia gas stations are still recovering from surging demand last week. Gasoline sales were reportedly 2-3 times stronger than normal as drivers lined up at pumps to top off their tanks.”

“The restart of the pipeline last Wednesday was very positive news for motorists,” said Waiters, “While the impact was not seen immediately, Georgians can expect to see a few more days of limited fuel supply but can rest assured that relief is coming.”

The Colonial Pipeline outage

The recent surge in gasoline prices is a direct result of the panic-buying brought on by the successful cyberattack against Colonial Pipeline.

Colonial Pipeline, which supplies about 45 percent of the gasoline for the East Coast, was hit by a ransomware attack on Friday May 7.

The attack locked up the company’s computer systems, and the company shut down pipeline operations

Colonial reportedly payed a $5 million ransom to the hacker group DarkSide, and the pipline company resumed the flow of gasoline on Wednesday May 12.

What are prices like in Cobb County?

The price of a gallon of regular unleaded in Cobb County is $3.021 at the time of this writing, about four cents more expensive than 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?

According to AAA:

AAA updates fuel price averages daily at www.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.