Gas Prices Are Unusually High Right Now, And They're Heading Higher

The U.S. saw unusually high gas prices in February, a month not known for being a driving season.

What's up?

The short answer is refinery maintenance and outages mostly related to preparations for the summer gasoline blend switch, according to AAA analyst Avery Ash. Refiners appear to be preparing for this switch earlier than usual, he said.

The long answer is that worldwide demand is heating up again, according to the EIA.

And the bad news for consumers is that prices historically start to tick up in the spring and don't go down until the beginning of summer. Check out this chart from AAA.

So elevated prices are likely here to stay.