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Gas prices in Virginia, Maryland skyrocket after Colonial Pipeline shutdown causes 'panic buying'

AAA says average prices in Virginia rose by $0.18 over the last week, the fourth-highest increase in the country.

ARLINGTON, Va. — Drivers are noticing higher prices at the pump a week after the Colonial Pipeline shutdown ... which some experts blame on the initial "panic buying."

"Kind of hard finding it for like a good price," driver Erick Molina said. "And like, all the gas stations are out in my area."

Other drivers said right now, there's no such thing as a good price. One gas station in Arlington was selling regular gas for $3.05 Monday. One in Alexandria marked it up to $3.25.

"it goes back to this ancient law of supply and demand," John Townsend with AAA mid-Atlantic said. "And then you couple that with hysteria, and panic buying. And all of these things are seeing a confluence at the same time."

Townsend said average gas prices are up $0.18 in Virginia from last week ($2.94 average), making it the state with the fourth-highest price increase in the country.

He said Maryland came in at the seventh-highest with an average $0.16 increase, and D.C. prices have gone up by about $0.08.

RELATED: 'Put us in a bad situation' | Alexandria gas station runs out of fuel for a day after Colonial Pipeline hack

"This type of price increase you only see after a major hurricane, or a major conflict in the Middle East. And none of those two things are happening," Townsend said. "This scenario is caused by panic buying and a tremendous surge in product demand."

While gas stations in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia are gradually replenishing their fuel supply, outages persist.

As of 8 p.m. Monday, Gas Buddy reported outages at 70% of D.C. stations, 24% of Maryland stations, and 28% of Virginia stations.

RELATED: Almost half of DC gas stations are owned by one company; could this be why it was hit hardest by gas shortage?

Many drivers in Maryland and Virginia said their biggest concern now, though, is the price.

"I don't think it's sustainable, especially for a bunch of individuals that you know, like the pandemic has hit really hard," one driver said. "So I don't know if that's feasible for society."

Townsend anticipates prices continuing to increase through Memorial Day — and could be impacted by the 34 million Americans AAA anticipates to travel more than 50 miles from home that weekend. He also predicts that prices will start to come down around Father's Day.

"Keep in mind, prices shoot up like a skyrocket, and they come down like a feather," Townsend said. "We are now just caught in a vicious cycle. First, there was panic buying, and then there were tremendous spikes in prices. And when you see an 18 cent price increase in a one-week period, that is really extraordinary."

He doesn't advise people to abstain from traveling — just make a gas plan on your route to make sure you don't get stranded. Gas Buddy is one app that shows which stations have outages and which have fuel.

In the meantime, some drivers said they were trying to hold out on refueling for as long as possible to wait out the price spike.

"I just hope it gets back to normal and I hope we can establish some kind of consistency moving forward," one driver said.

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