Now that Congress has passed legislation to avoid the fiscal cliff, many people are breathing a sigh of relief, but many others are asking the age-old question: what does this mean for gas prices?
Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.Com, said there have been some rumors and small talk about a possible increase to the federal gas tax, but nothing solid has been presented at this point. However, he said just the fact that the talk is up in the air may be grounds for some concern, as this may be a sign of whats to come over the next few years as politicians continue to search for new sources of revenue.
Fortunately, gas prices in Indiana have been on a downward trend, but DeHaan said that won’t last long – prices have a tendency to shift upward into the new year, and he said it wouldn’t surprise him if Hoosiers started seeing prices begin to rise within the next week or two.
“The way prices work, at least many times in Knox, is prices have a tendency to jump a pretty good amount all in one day. So, that’s something that may happen here in the next couple weeks as we may notice a jump in price,” said DeHaan.
The Indiana average is currently around $3.23 – roughly the same average as a week ago, before prices jumped as high as $3.32. The national average is around $3.27, dipping slightly over the last several days.
