By Rachel Sawicki

Prices at the gas pump are rising at unprecedented rates across the country.

Sunday into Monday, the average price per gallon rose 10 cents, and is up 50 cents from just last week. The average at the end of the day Sunday was $4.10 per gallon.

On Monday, most pumps in New Castle County were priced at $4.25 and both Wawa and Royal Farms convenience stores in Dover advertised $4.29 per gallon. One of the top prices in the state was at Exxon on U.S. 13 in Seaford at $4.39 per gallon.

Kristen Rutecki is a University of Delaware senior and a student teacher in New Castle. She commutes from Newark four days a week and is currently pulling money from her savings to pay for the trips.

“I don’t really have a choice right now so it’ll come down to me having to ask my parents for help, which I never like to do,” she said. “But unfortunately, when times are tough, you have to do what you can just to get by. Student teaching is mandatory so it’s not like I can just give it up. I’ll be doing it until May so I hope these prices go down.”

AAA Mid-Atlantic Public Relations Manager Ken Grant said it is impossible to predict when prices may fall. They may even continue to rise.

“No one could have predicted this,” he said. “There are so many factors at play on a global level. We are not expecting a drop anytime soon but you never know.”

“The price of gas is beyond ridiculous,” said Sean Tolston, of Cheswold. “Not only do the rising costs for gas and food erase any thoughts of a $15 minimum wage helping people out, but they will leave many unable to pay their bills and force them to make hard decisions on where to spend their hard-earned money.”

Mr. Grant noted that International Energy Agency member countries agreed to release 60 million barrels of emergency oil stocks to alleviate the increasing tightness in oil markets resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This is only the fourth time in history that the IEA has had to make an emergency release.

“These days, the demand is much higher than it was at the start of the pandemic,” Mr. Grant said.

“But at the same time, we’re looking at a serious constriction on the supply side on a global scale. This is not something that’s limited just to the U.S. Right now with what’s happened, the conflict with Russia and Ukraine, we’re looking at significant disruptions to the crude oil supply.”

IEA member countries hold 1.5 billion barrels in public reserves and about 575 million barrels under obligations with industry. Therefore, this initial response of 61.7 million barrels represents just 3% of total emergency reserves.

“I’d like to know what President Biden’s role in all of this is,” said Sara Shields, of Magnolia. “Gas prices have been going up ever since he first took office, and now they’re not just going up… they’re exploding. And we’re still buying gas from Russia? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense considering what’s happening to the Ukraine people right now.”

Dave Brass, of Elkton, Maryland, said that between work and driving his kids around, he has to fill up his tank about twice a week.

“Like everybody else, I’ll just have to cut back on certain things,” he said. “It’s going to pass and prices will come down again. You just have to survive while this is going on. And I don’t like what is going on overseas either, but I knew we were going to be victimized by this. We’re down here in the trenches and the middle class always has to pick up the tab. It’s always been that way and it always will be that way.

Mr. Grant said that it could take up to three weeks for the impact of the release to make its way to the pump. And since transportation is a cost factor for most other goods and services, gas prices could affect the overall price of everything.

Mr. Grant advises drivers to take fewer trips in their vehicles when possible, try to carpool to the grocery store or to work, and explore public transportation to try to minimize the impact on their wallets. Additional measures they can take to make their car more efficient is properly inflated tires and emptying any unnecessary weight from the vehicle so it runs lighter.

Staff writer Mike Finney contributed to this story.