Utah feeling no relief from gasoline pains

Paying for gasoline is becoming a more painful experience for Utah drivers: The average price for self-serve, regular unleaded increased to $3.26 per gallon in April, up 13 cents from last month's average price, according to AAA Utah.

Nationally, the average price jumped 10 cents in April to $3.33 per gallon — 55 cents higher than the same time last year. AAA said a new national record high average price of $3.34 was established on April 7.

"The price of fuel has increased so dramatically that many motorists now consider anything under $3 to be a bargain," said Rolayne Fairclough, AAA Utah spokesperson. "This is in stark contrast to last year, when Utah's average price was $2.69."

Gas prices nationwide are expected to rise even higher in the coming months, according to a government report released Tuesday.

In the latest bit of bad news for cash-strapped consumers, the Energy Information Administration predicted that average gasoline prices will shoot up to $3.60 a gallon in June and average $3.54 per gallon over the summer driving period, an increase of 60 cents a gallon over last summer.

It's entirely possible that gasoline prices could top $4 a gallon during parts of the summer driving period, defined as April 1 to Sept. 30, said EIA Administrator Guy Caruso said.

High-price states such as California, where gasoline cost 32 cents per gallon above the national average in March, are pulling up the national average, the EIA said.

Breaking down the average projected prices, the EIA chief said the West Coast was likely to see an average price of $3.78 per gallon of unleaded gasoline over the summer driving period. That's followed by the Rocky Mountain states at $3.53 a gallon, the Midwest and East Coast at $3.50 a gallon and the Gulf Coast states, closer to the production of much domestic oil, with the lowest average price, $3.41 per gallon.

The expected high prices, Caruso said, will lead to a slight reduction of 0.04 percent in U.S. gasoline consumption during the peak summer-driving season, the first time that's happened since 1991.

That year, the downturn in consumption accompanied a brief recession. Caruso said that the U.S. economy should grow at a rate of 1.2 percent this year but would contract during the first six months.

"So technically, we are projecting...a small recession in the first half of this year, and that's our assumption," he said.