Rising gasoline prices are impacting travel plans and businesses

BATON ROUGE – Gas prices continue to rise, reaching about $4.43 a gallon nationwide.

“I usually fill up every other day and it costs me about $88 to $90 to fill up my tank,” said Ryan Milhet.

The sticker shock at the gas pump isn’t just affecting summer travelers. It’s also affecting lawn care workers like Kenny Levy, who puts more gas in his mowers than his own trucks.

“The gas I use on my lawn mowers uses more than what this truck takes, so the gas has to go down or people lose their jobs,” Levy said.

Levy says he mows about 16 lawns and those prices are hurting his business.

“I can’t afford to go on like this. If this goes on all summer, there is no way I will be able to keep doing this.”

Louisiana recently hit an all-time high in March when it surpassed $4 a gallon. Experts say the war in Ukraine is partly responsible.

“The two factors driving higher prices today are number one: economic activity as we globally recover from the pandemic. Number two: the crisis in Ukraine,” said LSU professor Gregory Upton.

Now Louisiana sees a new historic migration almost every day.

According to the AAA, regular gas prices in the Baton Rouge area rose about three cents in one day and nearly 24 cents from a week ago.

“From early May to now, it’s just a continuous daily march up,” said AAA’s Don Remand.

Experts recommend preparing for the worst.

“There doesn’t appear to be any immediate horizon that would bring these prices down, so we advise our members to budget for near historic highs or historic highs. At least $4.50 per gallon, or possibly even more,” Remand said.

For some, the high prices will likely discourage them from traveling this summer and trying to save any money they can.

“I fill up at least every two and a half weeks, maybe three. And I try not to go to a lot of places,” Courtney Brown said.

At the moment there is hope for relief, but there is still a long way to go.

“Over the next year, futures markets are expecting oil prices to fall by about $95 a barrel, and indeed, a year from now, we can expect gasoline prices to be back below $3 a gallon,” Upton said.