Gas rises above $3 a gallon again

Orange County gas prices hit a new high this week, tapping everyone’s pocket and causing concerns about further spikes.

A drive down busy Harbor Boulevard showed gas prices as high as $3.15 for regular unleaded. Most service stations were asking $2.99 a gallon, up nearly 11 cents from the week before and nearly 34 cents from a month ago.

“I’m kind of numb to it by now,” said Frank Abbotts, who was filling up his Toyota Tundra at a Shell station on Fairview Drive. “It’s always going up. Even when it drops back down a bit, it just goes up again. I’m over it.”

Increases are expected to continue, said Carol Thorp of the Southern California Auto Club, who blamed the spikes on eager investors.

Those investors are “buying into crude and gasoline futures markets on speculations that prices will continue rising. Retail prices still have not caught up with wholesale price increases,” she said. “It’s likely that prices at the neighborhood gas pump will continue rising for at least two to three more weeks.”

That speculation is driven by several external factors, including record-high oil prices, uncertainty in the Middle East and refining difficulties. Thorp also said the industry switch to the gasoline additive ethanol from MTBE, or methyl tertiary butyl ether, could also be causing the increase.

Gas prices could keep rising until Mother’s Day or until as late as Memorial Day, then fall again below current levels, Thorp said.

That news wasn’t exactly comforting to Teri Hanover, who was expecting to spend just short of $80 to fill up her Chevy Suburban at the same Shell station.

“There’s definitely something to say for not having a gas guzzler right now,” she said. “It’s nice to have the big vehicle, but a hybrid is looking pretty enticing too.”

Jacob Lads, who was filling up his BMW, said he hated the steep prices, but didn’t feel like he had any other choice.

“What am I going to do, take a bus? Ride by bike? I mean come on, get real,” he said. “I’ll complain, I’ll gripe, and then I’ll pull out my Visa and do the whole thing over again.”dpt.22-gas-BPhotoInfoVF1Q7G4P20060422iy3oa0ncDON LEACH / DAILY PILOT(LA)Gas prices are on the rise in Newport-Mesa, including at the Chevron station at Baker Street and Fairview Road.