By: Camila Chaves ‘23

Although half of us students can’t drive, every one of us has noticed the dramatic increase in gas prices lately. However, many of us may not know the reason for the increase. 

The number one reason is that oil production has been cut in many countries that we depend on. Russia is a huge part of oil production and with just Russia cutting 10 million barrels of oil, global supply has been lowered by 10%. Additionally, with the current political issues in Russia, oil and gas prices have been rising. Even though the U.S. doesn’t depend largely on Russia’s production, their prices and productivity are impacting the global market. Lastly, as we are coming out of the pandemic, demand for gas around the nation is increasing as people begin to travel more, contributing to the rise in gas prices- but how much have they been increasing?

Connecticut’s average gas price a year ago according to AAA was $2.89. Since then Connecticut has hit its highest recorded average price, $4.49, on March 11. Although gas prices aren’t rising any more, they continue to be very high, making trips anywhere unnecessarily expensive. 

Commutes to work, school and even just trips to the supermarket have become nearly twice as expensive as they were a year ago. People who live especially far from their place of work, including some of our teachers at BHS, have had to pay the price. Many of us (or our parents) have gone to paying almost or even over $100 a week for gasoline. 

Fortunately, gas prices have not been increasing anymore and have even been gradually lowering, with our current average gas price being $3.97.