NEW YORK-The na­tion­al av­er­age price for a gal­lon of gaso­line rose for the eighth straight day yes­ter­day to $3.835. That is now on­ly about 7 per cent be­low the record high of $4.11 from Ju­ly 2008. The av­er­age price rose by four-tenths of a pen­ny, ac­cord­ing to the sur­vey of gas sta­tions con­duct­ed for the mo­torist group AAA. Gas prices are now up more than 17 per cent this year.

Gaso­line av­er­ages more than $4 a gal­lon in sev­en states: Alas­ka, Cal­i­for­nia, Con­necti­cut, Hawaii, Illi­nois, New York and Wash­ing­ton. Gas prices are al­so above $4 a gal­lon in the Dis­trict of Co­lum­bia, ac­cord­ing to AAA. At near­ly $4.48 a gal­lon, Hawaii ranks as the na­tion's high.

Gas prices have been ris­ing on the back of soar­ing oil prices, which have shot up more than 5 per cent over the past month amid fears that ten­sions with Iran will lead to an all-out war that caus­es a dis­rup­tion in oil sup­plies. The spike in gas prices has led to spec­u­la­tion that the US and Britain may re­lease strate­gic oil re­serves over the next few months in or­der to boost sup­plies and low­er crude prices.

CN­N­Money