Florida gas prices jumped 8 cents following Hurricane Ida, and AAA reported Tuesday that this past weekend’s gas prices were the highest in the last seven years during Labor Day weekend.
Prices at the pump are now about $3.02 per gallon in Florida.
Recommended Videos
According to AAA, that’s 83 cents more than last year’s holiday, and 58 cents more than what drivers paid during the 2019 holiday weekend.
AAA also reported Tuesday that gas prices in the Sunshine State jumped 8 cents last week after Hurricane Ida left nine crude oil refineries on the gulf coast offline.
“This resulted in an outage of about 13% of total U.S. refining capacity,” a news release from AAA stated.
The U.S. Department of Energy reported that four of the nine refineries have begun the process of restarting. Three are located in Baton Rouge and the other is near New Orleans.
Still, the DOE says it could take days for those refineries to produce at full rates.
According to AAA, five refineries near New Orleans that remain shut account for 6% of total U.S. refining capacity.
“News that refineries are working to restore operations is a positive sign for motorists,” AAA spokesman Mark Jenkins said. “As refineries get back up and running, prices should begin to slide lower; especially now that the summer driving season has come to a close.”
Click here to find daily gas price averages in the state.
State and metro averages can be found by clicking here.