Gas prices in Michigan see massive increase, set new 2024 high

Gas prices in Michigan set a new 2024 high on Monday after seeing a massive spike, according to AAA Michigan.

The agency reports prices jumped 20 cents from last week to an average of $3.45 per gallon. That's 45¢ more than this time last month and 4¢ more than this time last year.

In metro Detroit, prices jumped 19 cents to $3.44 per gallon, according to AAA.

"Michigan motorists are seeing the highest gas prices since October 2023," said Adrienne Woodland, spokesperson, AAA-The Auto Club Group. "If demand continues to grow alongside tighter supply, pump prices may continue to increase."

But Patrick De Haan at GasBuddy says the outlook for 2024 appears very similar to last year.

"2024 is going to feel an awful lot like 2023," said De Haan. "It wasn't a bad year last year we avoided for dollars. But to give you a comparison, gas prices in Grand Rapids today actually, exactly the same as they were a year ago. So we are right on par for to be a very similar year to last year."

According to GasBuddy, the national average for a gallon of gas sits at $3.34 on Monday, up 10 cents from last week and 22 cents from last month.

"As we start getting closer to the start of the summer driving season, we've already begun the trans to transition back to more expensive summer gasoline," said De Haan. "We're still dealing with that BP refinery, which has been struggling in Northwest Indiana. That is a big piece to the puzzle of why gas prices are continuing to go up that another refineries are also doing maintenance before the start of the summer driving season."

During an interview with FOX 17, De Haan noted that 3 stations in Grandville were still selling gas for below $3 a gallon, but said that deal wouldn't hang around long.

"The good news is they'll probably reappear in about five or six months towards the end of 2024. And it has nothing to do with the election. It has everything to do with the fact that those seasonal factors can go the other way as well."

Unfortunately for drivers, we likely haven't seen the end of increases at the pump.

"Last year, we hit the plateau in late summer," said De Haan. "We'll probably have another four to six weeks of increases before things are all said and done. Last year the price peaked at about $3.79 a gallon in April. We could eventually get that high, which would coincide with prices jumping another 10 cents every week. But hopefully, we will be able to avoid the $4 a gallon mark, again, like we did last year."

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