$5 gas arrives in Indianapolis; state at record high price for 3rd straight day
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Stations on the northwest side of Indianapolis had regular gas at more than $5 a gallon on Friday afternoon, according to GasBuddy reports.
Three of the four stations with regular gas at $5.09 a gallon were at the intersection of State Road 67/Kentucky Avenue and South High School Road. However, a visual check of those three stations’ signs about 3:30 p.m. Friday showed only one had gas at $5.09.
The fourth station with the $5.09 price was just off Ameriplex Parkway, according to the GasBuddy reports, and News 8 confirmed that amount.
All four stations are south of Indianapolis International Airport.
On Friday, Kieryn Cooper paid $97 to put 16 gallons of premium gas in her Dodge Challenger 392 car. “If it gets worse than, I don’t know, I don’t want to get rid of my car. Hopefully, it doesn’t come to needing a second income or anything like that.”
GasBuddy also showed at least 10 stations in the Lafayette-West Lafayette area and one station in Bloomington with regular gas at $5.19 a gallon on Friday afternoon. One station in Cambridge City, which is in Wayne County on central Indiana’s eastern border, had a price of $5.09 a gallon for regular on Friday afternoon.
Indiana’s average price for a gallon of regular hit a record high for a third consecutive day. At 9 p.m. Friday, the price was $4.96. That’s 3 cents higher than Thursday, 39 cents more than a week ago, 82 cents higher than a month ago, and $1.93 more than a year ago, according to GasBuddy. Indiana is one of only three states to have gas prices jump at least 40 cents over the past seven days.
Drivers could fill up in Indianapolis for an average of $4.92 per gallon of regular on Friday night. The national average is $4.81 on Friday night.
High gas prices can be blamed on short supply, high demand, and the war in Ukraine, experts say. Refineries are at full capacity, and demand isn’t subsiding. Scott Imus, executive director of the Indiana Food and Fuel Association, said that refineries are experiencing “the same problems every other industry is, with employee shortages and supply shortages with the equipment they need.”
The association represents a majority of the 3,000 convenience stores around Indiana.
Indiana has two taxes on gasoline: the 7% state sales tax and a tax directed to infrastructure projects. The road projects tax that’s currently 32 cents a gallon is set to go up by 1 cent in July.