With local gas prices leaving drivers frustrated at the pump, the U.S. Energy Information Administration has blamed the closure of several refineries on the East Coast for the recent spike.
"I think it's ridiculous," said Devin Woodford, 22, of Minersville, while filling up his vehicle Saturday evening. "If it comes down I'll be happy, but I can't control that."
Woodford said during the last four years of high gas prices, he has had to better manage his travels.
According to GasBuddy.com, gas prices in the Pottsville area Saturday evening were $3.99 with a state average of $3.95, up about 30 cents a gallon from last year.
"They're too high. It's killing me," Paulette Yuschock, 52, of Tremont, said while at a local gas station Saturday. "I feel like I'm putting gas in my vehicle every day."
She said she has does a lot traveling for work and isn't able to take her mother out to eat as often as she used to.
"It's sad because our wages aren't being raised while gas prices keep going up," she said.
With high gas prices, Yuschock said people are also probably going to be paying more to heat their homes this winter.
"I honestly don't know how some people are going to be able to afford it," she said. "I fear for the people who have to heat their homes on a fixed income."
Since September 2011, two refineries in the Philadelphia area, ConocoPhillips' Trainer refinery and Sunoco's Marcus Hook refinery, have been closed. Sunoco's Philadelphia refinery was saved from closure when it was bought in April by The Carlyle Group, a Washington, D.C.-based private-equity manager.
These three Philadelphia-area refineries are responsible for 50 percent of East Coast refining.
According to the EIA projections as of Saturday, the average national gas price will decrease from $3.81 for September to $3.68 for October and close the year around $3.50. Over the year, the national average for 2012 is projected to be $3.64, up from $3.53 from last year. The projected national average for 2013 is $3.43.