Gas prices are creeping up

It’s costing more to gas up the car.

The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in New Jersey has edged above $2. Prices in the  Philadelphia area are about $2.35, and motorists in Delaware are paying the nationwide average of $2.16.

A rise in crude oil costs and a transition to more expensive summer gasoline blends pushed up the price six cents in just a week, said Gregg Laskoski, an analyst with GasBuddy.com.

“We would expect that prices would climb probably through May, maybe into early June,” he said. “At that point, we project that the U.S. average could fall between a range of $2.40 to $2.70.”

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Because gas is still 39 cents cheaper than it was a year ago, Laskoski said he doesn’t expect the increase will curb spring and summer driving.

“For a long time, we had such low prices that that contributed to increased consumer demand,” he said. “People, I think, just recognized that — from a price perspective — things we’re going to get much better than we’ve been in recent months, and a lot of folks are just choosing to travel.”

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