Gas prices continue to increase locally.

Byline: Ilene Aleshire The Register-Guard

While the average price of gasoline stayed steady at the national level, and dropped slightly for Oregon as a whole, Eugene- Springfield prices resumed their upward march this week. The average price of a gallon of regular has risen 2 cents since last week locally, from $4.31 to $4.33, according to AAA.

Meanwhile, the national average for regular unleaded held steady at the record high of $4.11 on Tuesday for the second day in a row, after setting record highs eight days in a row, according to AAA Oregon spokeswoman Marie Dodds. Oregon's average dropped four-tenths of a cent per gallon in the past week, to $4.29, she said.

The number of states where the average price of regular is $4 a gallon or more continued to rise - to 39 states, up from 37 last week.

Dodds said the AAA is cautioning that prices may continue to increase over the next couple of weeks because of the recent run-up in crude oil prices. Although the price has come down a few dollars per barrel this week, it was up to $145 last week because of worries about more conflicts in the Middle East disrupting the supply of oil from Iran.

Dodds said weakness in the U.S. dollar also has been a factor in the rising price of oil. "Crude oil is bought and sold in dollars and investors often buy oil and other commodities as a hedge against inflation when the dollar weakens against other currencies," she said.

The average price of gasoline in the Eugene-Springfield area is now $1.35 higher than it was a year ago. On Tuesday, a longtime car dealer in the Florence area, Dunham Motors, said it was getting out of new and used car sales, citing fuel costs as a major reason.General manager Blake Brewster said he had seen a decline in sales of trucks and SUVs, adding that domestic automakers have failed to produce vehicles that can compete with imports.