Gas prices inching up as Fourth of July approaches

 (Paul Sakuma/AP Photo)

(Paul Sakuma/AP Photo)

It’ll be more expensive to drive to your Independence Day destination this year.

Concerns about Mideast violence have pushed up gas prices in New Jersey by eight cents in the past month to an average $3.55 for a gallon of regular.

Average prices in the Philadelphia are $3.79 and $3.66 in the Wilmington vicinity.

That’s the highest for Fourth of July travel since 2008.

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But, Tom Kloza, the chief oil analyst at GasBuddy.com in Wall Township, does not believe it will have a big impact on summertime plans.

“I don’t see prices going high enough to inspire any cuts in driving and vacations,” he said. “I don’t see prices moving low enough to inspire, ‘Hey, it’s cheap let’s go down to Wildwood or whatever’ either.”

Kloza expects gas prices will drop slightly in coming weeks unless there’s a Gulf Coast hurricane that disrupts production.

He’s still forecasting prices to fall as low as $3 a gallon in New Jersey by the end of the year.

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