CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Samantha Michaels was at the Exxon on Doddridge Street and Alameda Street in Corpus Christi on Tuesday filling up her gas tank. She said she usually only fills up about every three weeks because she works from home.
“I can feel it when I fill up,” she said about the rising gas prices.
Since she doesn’t have to fuel up all the time, she doesn’t see the impact very often, but said she still uses a gas app to find the cheapest gas around her.
“With everything going on in the Ukraine, with Russia, I am concerned that gas isn’t going to go down anytime soon,” Michaels said.
The Biden Administration announced on Tuesday they are banning imports of Russian oil into the U.S.
Daniel Armbruster, the spokesperson for AAA Texas, said the U.S. banning Russian oil imports will pump up gas prices. He said on Tuesday the average gas price in Corpus Christi was $3.79 ,and said that’s close to the all time record of $3.96 in 2008.
“It jumped 20 cents since yesterday. It’s jumped 57 cents since last week. That’s pretty substantial increases, and so likely we will surpass that record,” Armbruster said.
According to the Wall Street Journal, about 8% of U.S. imports of oil and refined products came from Russia last year.
Jim Lee, a professor of economics at TAMU-CC, said the U.S. only imports about 3% of its oil from Russia. He said Texas can help out the world by increasing oil production to offset the 3% of oil the U.S. is losing.
But will that be enough to lower gas prices in the Coastal Bend?
“Not substantially because it’s going to take time to ramp up production, but over time you’re going to see an impact,” Lee said.
Lee said President Biden has a few options to lower gas prices. He said one option is to give people a stimulus check and another option is to cut off federal taxes on gas. He said Biden’s third option is to release oil from the reserves.
“If history repeats itself, then we’re going to see at least 20 cents in the reduction of gasoline prices,” Lee commented.
However, Lee said those twenty cents wouldn’t be enough to offset the increase in gas prices all that much.
Michaels is staying positive that gas prices will soon decrease.
“I’m glad we live in South Texas where gas prices are pretty low compared to the rest of the country,” she said.
