Smiles fade at the pump: Gas prices going back up

Associated Press

Motorists heading out for the long July 4th weekend will find that filling up the family car is getting more costly.

Retail prices for gasoline have climbed over the past week and are headed back toward a national average of $2.80 to $2.90 per gallon with higher prices on the West Coast, said Tom Kloza of the Oil Price Information Service.

Prices dropped for about six weeks as oil prices fell over worries that the European debt crisis could spread and crush the global economic recovery and demand for crude.

Those worries have since ebbed, oil is rising again, and the stock market has started to recover some of its recent losses.

Kloza said he expects the price increases to be modest.

“Much higher prices would roil the economic picture, and the oil-price rally has been largely on the coattails of the stock-market recovery,” he said.

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