LIHU‘E — Gas prices on Kaua‘i are higher this year compared to last year.
Last year in April of 2020, AAA reported the national average for a gallon of regular unleaded was $1.78. Average prices in Hawai‘i were $3.22 a gallon.
Tuesday, AAA reported the national average gas price at $2.98 per gallon, with Hawai‘i’s average price at $3.83 per gallon. That’s a $1.20 more national average gas price compared to last year and Hawaii‘i’s average went up to $0.61 cents.
Yesterday, the average price for Kaua‘i is at $4.01 per gallon compared to Oahu’s average at $3.766 per gallon, yet still cheaper compared to the Island of Hawaii which sits at $4.04 per gallon.
Filling up his truck with diesel fuel at the Lihu‘e gas station on Tuesday was Arthur Rice of Kalaheo.
“To fill this truck, it’s like a $120,” Rice said. “I work out in Princeville, from Kalaheo. I can get out to Princeville, two times on one tank. It’s about $40 to $50 just to get to Princeville and back home. The stations are all kind of the same with the diesel, but I usually go to Kalaheo gas station.”
An average of five fuel-station prices for regular unleaded shows Kaua‘i prices are at about $4.00 per gallon on Tuesday. Costco’s fuel station in Lihu‘e requires a membership but is always the lowest price on the island. On Tuesday, Costco’s unleaded fuel was at $3.69 per gallon and its premium was at $3.89 per gallon.
Shell gas station in Waimea is the highest on the island with their unleaded at $4.12 per gallon, and for their ethanol-free fuel, it’s $4.69 per gallon.
The unleaded regular fuel at Texaco in Koloa was at $4.05 per gallon, $4.29 per gallon for their plus, and $4.59 per gallon for their premium fuel.
Texaco in Kapa‘a serves their unleaded at $4.05 per gallon, $4.59 per gallon for their premium fuel, and their diesel at $4.69 per gallon. The 76 fuel station in Princeville sells their unleaded at $4.09 per gallon, their premium at $4.69 per gallon, and their plus at $4.39.
Melinda Chung, an employee at the 76 fuel station in Lihu‘e was disgusted by the prices displayed lately.
“Why go up when everybody is struggling already?” said Chung. “It just doesn’t make sense, I know they have to make money but everybody having a hard time already.”
Meanwhile, Associated Press reported Georgia’s governor Brian Kemp saying he is suspending state taxes on motor fuels through Saturday to offset increasing prices after a computer hack led a key pipeline that carries fuel to much of Georgia to shut down.
The Republican said Tuesday that he wanted to provide price relief from increasing fuel prices because of the Colonial Pipeline outage.
“It will probably help level the price at the pump off for a little while,” Kemp told reporters at DeKalb-Peachtree Airport in Chamblee.
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Stephanie Shinno, education and business reporter, can be reached at 245-0424 or sshinno@thegardenisland.com. The Associated Press contributed to this article.
The overwhelming majority of residence decided to vote for higher gas prices last November and here it is.
Please connect the dots for me. What specific actions lead to this increase in gas prices?
I agree, but be specific, liberal dimocRat, uncle joe biden, he wants you riding bikes
Thank you president biden for shutting down the oil pipelines
Yes, I’m glad he shut down the transpacific pipeline, too!
If thia happened last year everyone would be all over trump, but we have the cognitive delayed stooge in the white house to thank for shutting down the oil pipelines. Russian hackers? That seems to be the excuse for everything now
Nothing above is supported by evidence.
Thank you Joe Biden for the wreck our nations economy is heading to. Gas prices are just the tip of the iceberg. You cannot spend money we don’t have without printing more. That in case you don’t know is what causes inflation.
Where did that degree in economics come from? You’re missing quite a bit.
Hmmm…..I wonder how that vaccine to cure stupidity is coming along?
At least the REPUBLICAN Governor is doing something to help the people of his state. Not like the moron in the White House and his “menopause crew” that are destroying our country.
How many ways can such a short post discard credibility?
Thank you Democrats! Thank you Liberals’! Thank you Progressives! Thank you Socialists! Thank you Biden! Can’t wait for the higher interest rates that are coming as a result! Want to buy a home? Want to buy a car? GREAT! You will not be paying the low interest rates of our last President. Instead of his 2.75% rates, YOU will be paying 5%, 10%, even 20% to buy anything, which means YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO AFFORD ANYTHING! Kind of like the 22% plus interest rates that Socialist Queen President Carter gave us in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Can’t wait for all you Socialist Biden voters to lose your jobs, homes, and standard of living! Can’t wait to see more and more of you in the tents and feces strewn parks of Kauai! My God what have you done to all of us!
You also can’t earn anything in your savings at the current rates. Everything is a trade off. Rates are too low. For one thing, when they are rock bottom, you can’t provide any stimulus by dropping them more when needed.
Your hyperbole is unhelpful.
Absent the Trump virus debacle causing the economy to implode last year, current fuel prices are near-normal.
And just like clockwork, as soon as the one term loser is gone, his pal Putin is attacking our country again. Thank god we have a competent, decent President again and not a commy M
Elections have consequences! Hawaii voted for socialism …so socialism is what you’ll get.
Just wait till hyperinflation hits. Gas is up, building materials are up, food is up, stock market is crashing. Took less than 6 months for this administration to run our country in the gutter.
Just what is worse now than it was 6 months ago?
Everything!
That’s exactly as specific as one would expect.
I think in Michigan or Ohio, the price of gas is $1.38 to $1.50 per gallon. Just a few cents up since the 1980s. In Hawai’i it has gone up from $1.05 per gallon in the 1980s to $3.83 to $4.10 at some pumps. Three times the amount. This is a good sign that oil prices will be stable and more sales will continue in the selling of oil to US. This is a good sign of the economy picking up.
“You Cant Always get what want” WOW six months to open the boarder to anyone, soaring gas prices, war coming in he middle east. Russia hostile, China moving forward, and the US is standing by with Joe at the throttle. These are very scary times folks.
I get many didn’t like orange man, but his policies on focusing on improving American lives ahead of foreigners . What is wrong with that?
When was the last time you heard Joe say he wanted to raise social security? Hey how about all the inner city folks, how many jobs is he creating? The media has hijacked this country into believing that America is this warm soul who took in millions. Fact check America has been feeding its thirst on immigration, cheap, slave labor, for over 300 years.
Fact check liberals, when a Republican named Lincoln ended slavery, what did America do they imported slave labor from China to build the railroads, then they ” allowed Japanese to work in the fields for the, oh white the sugar plantation owners, then more cheap labor from Mexico to work the farms in California. The media has this distorted version of history of this country and trying to wrap the flag and distort the reality this country is still racist. Yet if they yell BLM enough they think that people are stupid that its a disguis for more cheap labor to fill the funnel.
Wake up Kauai, you just sold your future to higher taxes, death taxes, gas taxes, and if anyone wants to have their kids get ahead in a Biden world good luck. You sold out the future of your kids for the media hype around policies that were for the good of all American.
Thank you Kahuna! Perfectly said in a way that only to most avid Socialists won’t dare be able to understand! Losing Trump was the end of America as we’ve all known it Destroying the most successful Nation in the history of the world is in full play. God help us all!
RG, your missing the point- this gas crisis has just begun. Taxes will soon swallow any gain by the American worker. If your referring to the economy that was built by the prior president that will soon disappear as fast as it was built. The economy is posed to dive prior to 2022.
America was finally in a position to tell OPEC what the price of gas should be. America was setting the world energy prices 2016-2020, not a bunch of OPEC leaders who falsely claim to act in a free trade world.
Now we have Joe who no one respects on the global stage and see the Chinese & Russians laughing at America all the way to the bank.
Good job Hawaii, with inflation coming your kids will never live in the State or Kauai, and will have yourself to blame for the lack of knowledge prior to casting your vote.
The ignorance of so many that don’t understand world economics yet yell BLM until they ruined our country.
Before anyone labels me, I am a independent voter, voted for Bill Clinton once and did not vote in 2008 or 2012.
What is going on today is a national disgrace seeing a man who has lost his mind running the Country.
Notice the liberal’s comments on this string!!! How long before they admit that they made a BIG mistake. As long as it takes to get their heads out of their okole.
Do any of you ever look in the mirror?