The pleasure of $2.00 a gallon gasoline has left and an energy specialist thinks prices will be going up sharply in the next few days.
Wisconsin's price is at $2.29 up about two cents from last week, and with wholesale prices going up, prices are expected to go up at least another nickel in the next week.
Patrick DeHaan from the website gasbuddy. com says even though there's plenty of oil in the U.S., refineries are providing a type of bottleneck...
"....the extreme cold weather has affected refineries not only in the Great Lakes, but the East Coast. Last week we saw a major refinery explosion in California and that's the problem right now..."
Another factor is refineries this time of the year switch over from what is called "winter blend" to "summer blend" gasoline which routinely causes prices to rise a bit. DeHaan says crude oil inventories continue to rise significantly, but some key refineries have slowed gas production.
If it's any consolation to Midwest drivers, De Haan says due to lower than expected gas inventories, the price of gas in California went up 27 cents this week.
