Gas prices up nearly 40 cents in metro Atlanta

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Harvey is having an impact on our wallets at the gas pump.

Over the past week, we've watched gas prices soar 40 cents a gallon in metro Atlanta.

The average jumped 20 cents since yesterday and nearly 40 cents since last Friday.

The new average in metro Atlanta is $2.69, the highest price in two years.

Many stations Channel 2 Action News came across were even higher than that.

One gas station in midtown Atlanta ran out of gas overnight, but has since been re-supplied. Some stations only had premium gas.

Drivers filling up going into the busy holiday weekend aren’t happy about paying more.

“If it keeps on going up I think it’s going to create a problem. A lot of people going to be upset, going to be mad. The economy is already kinda shaky,” driver Lavour Sanders said.

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Colonial Pipeline, which supplies much of our gas in metro Atlanta, begins in Houston and hopes to be back up to full capacity by Sunday. But that doesn’t mean the prices will drop, experts say.

Prices always move faster to the upside and they stay. They're sticky, especially for gasoline, more so than when they're coming down,” Energy Analyst Chris Edmonds said.

Edmonds says retailers tend to hold on to higher prices when possible because we'll pay it.

“They'll raise price, and they have to because they're paying a higher wholesale price, but they're leave it a bit longer to capture a little extra margin,” he told Channel 2’s Jim Strickland.

Convenience store giant QuikTrip told Strickland they have plenty of supply for the weekend, but the wholesale price at Doraville was up another dime this morning.

Edmonds said relief will come when the first retailer becomes concerned about losing customers over price.

“He'll drop it and the market will immediately react to that,” Edmonds said.

Experts say they do not expect shortages in metro Atlanta, like they are seeing in Texas.

Cox Media Group