The Shadow
At the beginning the Christmas season, the average national price of $3.60 per gallon for regular gasoline remains 22 cents per gallon higher than Virginia’s $3.38 average price per gallon.
The national average for one gallon of regular gasoline in, Nov. of 2021 was $3.39, 21 cents per gallon lower, which indicates a monthly average increase over the past year of nearly two cents per gallon.
In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, President Joe Biden, in the spring, announced the sale of 180 million barrels of America’s crude oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), and on Oct. 18, the sale of 15 million barrels was announced for Oct. 19.
With the sale-off continuing, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) has dropped to its lowest level since 1984.
Despite the U.S. Department of Energy’s effort to lower the price of gasoline to help lower the nation’s inflation rate, the U.S. Labor Department has released the inflation rate for the past 12 months ending in Oct. The rate stands at 7.7% with winter less than 60 days away. The next inflation data release has been set for Dec. 13.
The price of one gallon of regular gasoline in the Alleghany Highlands varied the day after Thanksgiving, which is generally considered in the U.S. as the beginning of the Christmas holiday season that lasts till New Year’s Day.
From the Town of Iron Gate where the Rusty Hinge Country Store’s British Petroleum (bp) cash price for one gallon of regular gas was $3.09.9 compared to its price for credit card purchases, $3.17.9, to Clifton Dale Park’s One Stop Mart’s Exxon two miles north of Iron Gate on U.S. 220, there was little fluctuation in the prices.
The price for one gallon of regular gasoline when paying by cash was the same as in Iron Gate while the price for a gallon of gas when paying by credit was two cents higher.
Near I-64’s Exit 29 in Clifton Dale Park, the Fast Break Store’s Mobile gasoline price for one gallon of regular gas was $3.29.9, and its diesel fuel per gallon was selling for $5.29.9 per gallon.
The Town of Clifton Forge west of Clifton Dale Park once had five service stations that sold gasoline, but now the two that are left are under the management of the same owners. The bp station on Ridgeway St. had its price set at $3.34.9 per gallon of regular, $519.9 for a gallon of diesel fuel and $5.04.9 for a gallon of non-ethanol gasoline.
The Shell Station, also on Ridgeway St., had its price set for $3.54.9 per gallon of regular, and 12 of its 16 pump nozzles were wrapped with plastic to indicate a gasoline delivery was needed.
Love’s Travel Center had its diesel priced at $534.9 per gallon, and its regular gasoline was selling for $3.29.9 per gallon.
On S. Durant Road in Covington, the Exxon Station at Arby’s had its price set at $3.37.9 per gallon of regular gasoline.
Adjacent to the Exxon Station, the bp station was selling a gallon of regular for $3.35.9 and a gallon of diesel fuel for $5.69.9.
The high prices of gasoline and diesel fuel continue to play a role in the high inflation rate that has outpaced salary raises across the U.S.
The cost of delivering farmers’ produce to market has increased because of the high price of gasoline, and the farmers have been forced to raise the prices of their crops because of the increased cost of diesel fuel that their tractors require.
To add to those two problems for farmers, the cost of fertilizer has skyrocketed because petroleum is an important ingredient of fertilizer as it is to a host of other products, many of which farmers use.
Examples are synthetic rubber tires, furniture, ballpoint pens, shaving cream, combs, shampoo, eyeglasses, toothpaste, hand lotion, deodorant, soap, cosmetics, wax, lubricating oils, asphalt, heating oil, paint, packing materials, clothing, upholstery, and all plastics.
According to GasBuddy, the average national price for one gallon of regular gasoline surpassed $5 per gallon on Thurs., June 8 for the first time in U.S. history, and the price peaked on June 14, at $5.03 per gallon.
