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Michiganders Groan Over Gas Prices

DETROIT (WWJ) - It's a painful trip to the pump these days, as gas prices across Metro Detroit hover around $3.50 a gallon.

That's according to Gasbuddy.com expert Patrick Dehaan, who said we're lucky we haven't seen the long lines -- and, he says, there is a reason for that.

"Thankfully, we're not to the desperation that happened in the 70s, with lines miles long and stations running out of gasoline. There's no shortage here.  There is no shortage, just to reiterate that. It just so happens that investors are real nervous about what's going on in the middle east," Dehaan said.

Dehaan said Libyan oil is very sought after as it's a light sweet crude oil that is very easy to refine into gasoline.  He says, with Libya stopping the shipment of oil, other countries around the world are competing for oil that we receive - and that's causing the spike.

The high prices aren't sitting well with Metro Detroit motorists.

"Sometimes I might not even bother filling up. I put twenty in, here in there. Twenty dollars used to get me a half a tank.  I don't even get me a half a tank no more," one driver told WWJ's Mike Campbell.

"It's dipping into everything. Our fun money, exactly... everything; our going out to eat money. So, you've gotta do what you've gotta do," said another.

"It's crazy, it's too high... I'm wanting to spend money doing something else, but I gotta go to work. I gotta put gas in the car," Blair Lindsay of Warren said.

Are you making sacrifices so you can fill up your tank? Comment below.

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