Add fast-rising fuel costs to the list of challenges that HVACR contractors face today.

Retail gasoline prices in the U.S., which have been going up steadily for much of the past year, hit a nationwide average of $4.25 a gallon on March 9, an increase of just over 22% from a month earlier, when the price averaged $3.47 a gallon, according to AAA. Among the 50 states, average prices on March 9 ranged from a low of $3.79 a gallon in Kansas to a high of $5.57 a gallon in California, according to AAA.

The March 9 average was 53% higher than a year earlier, when the nationwide per-gallon average was $2.77.

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine and President Joe Biden’s decision to ban oil imports from Russia in response, prices aren’t expected to come down any time soon.

“We do not see this being resolved in the foreseeable future given the current geopolitical state of the world,” said Chris Czarnecki, government relations manager at Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA), in an email. “We hope we are wrong, but we believe this is something we will be seeing and dealing with for some time.”

Ultimately, Czarnecki said, contractors will be forced to raise prices to cover the added costs. Some already have.

For contractors already coping with a supply-chain slowdown, a labor shortage, and an inflation rate that’s at a 40-year high, runaway fuel costs are adding to their woes.

To read the full ACHR NEWS article, click here.