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Craig T. Kojima / ckojima@staradvertiser.com Motorists fueled up yesterday at a Chevron station on South School Street. The price for a gallon of regular gas broke the $6 mark this week in Hana, Maui.
The price for a gallon of regular gas broke the $6 mark this week in remote Hana, Maui, notching a record that is consistently being topped.
In its weekly fuel gauge report, AAA said the current average in the state of Hawaii for regular gas was $4.566 on Wednesday. Premium was at $4.74. That compares with $3.572 a gallon for regular gas and $3.848 a gallon for premium a year ago. The statewide average price for regular gas has been steadily climbing since April 20 when it first broke a record price of $4.51 set on July 31, 2008, AAA said.
In Hana the area’s only gas station was charging $6.03 for a gallon of regular gas as of Tuesday. The price for premium gas was $6.25 a gallon.
"Everybody is complaining," said Nani Kahuila, who works at the station in the remote East Maui community. "But what you going to do? … You got to pay it. Fifty dollars doesn’t go very far nowadays."
Hana’s price is not included in AAA’s statewide gas survey, which covers the metro areas of Honolulu, Wailuku and Hilo and is gathered every Wednesday by AAA.
Nationally, AAA says the national average for regular gas was $3.886 a gallon and $4.156 for premium on Wednesday.
Honolulu motorists are paying, on average, $4.455 a gallon for regular gas and $4.637 for premium gas. That tops last week’s previous record of $4.409 for regular gas and is 5 cents more than a week ago, according to AAA.
In Wailuku the average price for regular gas was $4.932 a gallon and $5.121 for premium. The price was 3 cents higher than last week’s $4.898.
In Hilo the average price of regular gas was $4.580 a gallon and $4.797 for premium. However, that doesn’t top the record of $4.656 for a gallon of regular grade set in July 2008.
On Molokai, which gets its shipment of gasoline only once a month, the price for regular grade at its two gas stations was $5.16 a gallon and $5.24 for premium.
Kat Kaai, manager at Hayaku Gas in Kaunakakai, told the Star-Advertiser that the next shipment of gas is expected to arrive by barge next month.
Hawaii’s weekly gas prices are derived from fleet credit card transactions at selected gas stations in Honolulu, Wailuku and Hilo, the AAA reported.
