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Gas prices soar for Thanksgiving as Americans schedule road travel

Gas Pump.jpeg. A customer pumps gas in Columbus. gas pump
Daniel Konik/Statehouse News Bureau

Gas prices are expected to reach a record breaking level this Thanksgiving week.

This Thanksgiving, the national average for gas is projected to be 20 cents higher than last year's holiday. The previous record was set ten years ago.

Gasbuddy, a platform which tracks gas prices around the country, including Ohio, has projected that prices will be nearly 30 cents higher than during last year’s holiday.

Two key factors for the increase are refinery shutdowns during the peak of COVID-19, and sanctions from Russia’s War on Ukraine, which have driven up the prices of oil.

The high prices, however, aren't stopping people from traveling this holiday. Gasbuddy estimates 20% more Americans are expected to hit the road this week.

I would certainly advise motorists to shop around as gas prices have been declining and use an app like the GasBuddy app or even Google or ways to shop around for the low prices.” said Patrick de Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at Gasbuddy.

De Haan encouraged drivers in Ohio to shop around for the best prices this week, to potentially save 10 cents to 25 cents a gallon.

Although prices have been declining as Thanksgiving approaches , the national average this year is still expected to be about 24 cents a gallon higher than it was ten years ago.

Ngozi Cole is the Business and Economics Reporter for WYSO. She graduated with honors from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in New York and is a 2022 Pulitzer Center Post-Graduate Reporting Fellow. Ngozi is from Freetown, Sierra Leone.