Tagged: gasoline

Gasoline prices have risen sharply during the last few days.

"GasBuddy.com" pegs Michigan’s average price per gallon at $3.85. That's up ten cents from a week ago, and it's 20 cents higher than the national average. Many gas stations are already charging $3.99 a gallon, with a few charging more than four dollars. 

Gregg Laskoski is a senior petroleum analyst with GasBuddy. He says prices are not rising because of the upcoming Memorial Day holiday.

Laskoski blames refinery problems in Indiana and Illinois for prices pushing four dollars a gallon. 

Michigan motorists are paying a lot more for a gallon of gasoline than they did just a few weeks ago.

Just two weeks ago, the Web site GasBuddy.com pegged Michigan’s average price for a gallon of gas at $3.18. That average price has soared nearly sixty cents since then.

Patrick DeHaan is with GasBuddy. He describes the price spike as "unprecedented" for this time of year.

“What we have already seen is … mindblowing,” says DeHaan. 

DeHaan is not ruling out gas prices reaching four dollars a gallon in the near future.

DETROIT (AP) - A Detroit university is playing a role in early but promising efforts to find and extract new energy sources.

A research project at Wayne State University is among 14 across 11 states involved in work on methane hydrates. These are structures that look like ice but have natural gas locked inside.

The project builds on what the U.S. government calls a "successful, unprecedented" test on Alaska's North Slope that produced a steady flow of gas from methane hydrates.

A pipeline that supplies much of Michigan's natural gas could be shut down ... and converted to carry crude oil. That's sparked a number of concerns from business and government.

Natural gas is plentiful and cheap right now.

That's why a Texas company filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission -- or FERC --  in July to shut down 770 miles of transmission lines across several states. It would either abandon them ... or eventually use the pipes to carry crude oil.

And that could affect how much a lot of people in Michigan will pay to heat their homes and businesses.

The pipeline owned by Trunkline Gas Company crosses into Branch County from Indiana. That's where Consumers Energy connects to it ... and distributes the natural gas to 45 counties in the Lower Peninsula.

Dan Bishop is a Consumers Energy spokesman. He says Consumers depends on Trunkline for 60 percent of the gas it supplies to 1.7 million customers in Michigan.

Michigan gasoline prices have risen 25 cents in the past week.

The price increase is tied to late summer driving demand and Hurricane Isaac disrupting oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.

The average price for a gallon of gasoline in Michigan stands at $4.08, according to GasBuddy.com.