As of Tuesday morning, local motorists had their choices of prices to pay for unleaded fuel.
They could pay $3.20, $3.23, or the newest price, $3.30 per gallon. The $3.13 of the day before was gone, however.
Also gone, according to a statewide Internet site that follows fuel costs, is gas under $3 per gallon in Kansas.
The low price recorded as of Tuesday morning was $3.05 at Hutchinson.
Other prices around the state included $3.08, Topeka; $3.09, Carbondale and Burlingame; $3.10, Concordia; $3.11, Topeka; $3.12, Wichita; $3.13, Wichita, Salina and Junction City; $3.15, Salina; $3.18, Hays; $3.19, Hays, Dodge City, Garden City, Lawrence and Emporia; $3.22, Emporia, Lawrence and Garden City; $3.24, Manhattan and Salina; $3.28, Hays; and $3.29, Manhattan, Salina and Junction City.
Prices higher than Great Bend included: $3.39, Pittsburg, Hays, Eureka, Independence and Parsons; and $3.49, Neodesha, Cherryvale and Parsons.
Some communities are listed more than once in the prices, because there are a variety of gas prices available.
The average price in Kansas Tuesday was $3.24, up from $3.13 a week ago and $3.04 a month ago. A year ago, the average price in Kansas was $2.58.
The national average price Tuesday was $3.36, up from $2.70 a year ago.
Great Bend began 2011 with gas under $3 per gallon.
The prices are reported on Kansas Gas Prices, which is operated by Gas Buddy Organization, that was developed as a way for the public to report changes in gas prices around the nation.
The Kansas prices are available at www.kansasgasprices.com
According to the Associated Press, international news is discouraging.
“Oil prices climbed Tuesday as Iran clamped down on anti-government protesters and unrest in the Middle East threatened to keep energy prices high for months to come.
“The recent surge in oil has pushed up gasoline prices in the U.S. by nearly 20 cents per gallon in the past week. That’s the sharpest increase since 2005, according to the Oil Price Information Service. Americans are now paying roughly $75.6 million more per day to fill up than a week ago.
“The national average added another penny on Tuesday at $3.375 per gallon. Prices should keep rising to between $3.50 and $3.75 by spring, according to OPIS oil analyst Tom Kloza. He said future increases will be much more gradual, because gasoline markets have mostly priced in the recent rise in crude. ‘So we should flatten out’ in coming weeks, Kloza said.
“Oil prices surged 13 percent last week, peaking above $100 per barrel, as Libyan protesters expanded their control over the country. While the Libyan uprising continued Tuesday, news agencies reported that Iranian authorities imprisoned opposition leaders in Tehran. Iranian authorities denied the reports.
“Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Tuesday that a prolonged rise in oil prices would hurt the U.S. economy. But he said runaway inflation is unlikely. ‘The most likely outcome is that the recent rise in commodity prices will lead to, at most, a temporary and relatively modest increase in U.S. consumer price inflation,’ Bernanke said.”