Did you happen to notice that the price of gas has gone up within the past 24 hours here in southeast Minnesota? It did-- and by 20 cents or more in some locations. So just why is it going up now?

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Bloomberg/Getty Images
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I filled up my SUV Monday for around $2.22, if I recall, at Costco in northwest Rochester. They're usually a few cents cheaper than most other places. Now, though, my Gas Buddy app is reporting prices of around $2.50 or higher around Rochester. So what gives?

Well, according to this story from WCCO-TV, it all has to do with work being done at refineries that supply our gas stations here in the Midwest. "GasBuddy.com reports 12 Midwest oil refineries are having routine maintenance work done. The maintenance work is causing a decrease in supply. With less output from refineries comes higher prices at the pump."

Ah, so that's it. The 'ol 'maintenance at the refineries' excuse. But doesn't it seem like there's ALWAYS an excuse for our prices wildly spiking overnight? In the spring it's the 'switch over to the summer-blend' excuse. Near Memorial Day, it's the 'spike in demand as we kick-off the summer travel season' line. In the fall, they haul out the 'switch over to the winter heating season' excuse. And, of course, the timeless 'maintenance at the refineries' can pretty much be used at any time of the year.

I'm always surprised how quickly the price can go up when something like this happens. It's funny, though, that it never seems to fall as quickly as it goes up. And, if it IS, indeed, 'maintenance at the refineries' that's causing our recent price spike, as over-regulated as everything else in our lives today seems to be, you'd think our fine government could step in and regulate refinery maintenance schedules so there wouldn't be such a sharp increase in demand, and, in turn, such wild increases in the price we pay.

Alas, when you want government involved, it's not. But we'd better get used to it. The story also says, "There is no timeline on when the refinery maintenance work will be complete."  Great.

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