WNY financial expert says gas prices could keep rising for months

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The average price for a gallon of regular gas in Buffalo is now $4.30 which is an increase of 10 cents from Monday and 55 cents from a week ago.

Davon Wesley, a Driver for Grubhub, Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash in Buffalo, says, “Last week I just started doing DoorDash and I was cool with making $5 or $6 per trip but now I’m not answering a trip unless its $10 or $12 dollars.”

Wesley says last week he really started noticing how high gas prices were getting and that’s impacting his deliveries.

“It makes me want to do more trips per hour and if I’m not making like $20 to $25 an hour on DoorDash then I will stop,” said Wesley.

According to AAA, this week gas prices hit an average of $4.30 in Western New York.

George Conboy, the Chairman at Brighton Securities, says, “It would not surprise us to see gasoline prices north of $5 and even $5.50 before the year is out unless something dramatic changes in the next several months.”

Brighton Securities is a financial investment firm in Western New York. Conboy says unfortunately unless something changes, we will continue to see high gas prices like this for several months.

“There are two things that can bring gasoline prices down its either increase supply or decreased demand,” said Conboy.

He also says unless there's a recession decreased demand is unlikely because we all need to drive and in order to increase supply oil companies would need to start drilling for more.

Conboy, says, “We’re certainly paying the highest inflation adjusted prices for gasoline at the pump.”

Fox Buffalo’s Olivia Dance, asked, “How long is it sustainable?”

Conboy, replied, “We could say high gasoline prices are sustainable if you eat less steak and more hamburger, if you take no vacation, if you don’t buy new furniture when you need it. However, I don’t think anybody would say they would like to trade down in those other part of their life just so they could pay more at the pump. So technically sustainable sure but not sustainable at your same quality of life for very long.”

For now, most of us are just trying to make the best of it.

“I’m not looking at my credit card when I’m pumping gas,” said Wesley. “I don’t want the receipt you can keep that negative energy I’m just filling the tank.”

Conboy also says making less trips, carpooling, and driving slower are some ways to use less gas and save money.