Experts: War in Iran having ripple effect on LI's economy
The price of regular gas on Long Island is up nearly 50 cents a gallon from last week, and that's not the only increasing cost experts say we'll be seeing because of the war in Iran.
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Tragar Home Services says the price of home heating oil on Long Island is already soaring due the conflict in Iran.
"Right now, we're seeing oil increases of approximately 60% over the last month," said Frank Minissale, with Tragar Home Services.
"This is going to mean some serious, serious problems for the whole world economy," said Martin Melkonian, adjunct associate professor of economics at Hofstra.
Melkonian says the conflict in the Middle East will affect U.S. imports of fertilizer which will impact food prices, and the destruction of gas pipelines will cause our natural gas and electric bills to rise.
"Higher electricity prices because a lot of our electricity right here on Long Island is made with natural gas," he said.
Economic analysts say industries that rely on gas and oil to run their business may end up passing those increased costs on to the customer.
"Uber, grab and go food deliveries, pizza deliveries, flowers," said ecomonic analyst Martin Cantor.
Cantor says wait to make a major purchase, like filling up on home heating oil.
"There's no need to fill up your tanks for next winter, wait until the prices come down," Cantor said.
Experts say costs should slowly stabilize once the Iran conflict ends, but for now expect prices to keep going up.
Tragar says you don't always have to pay your oil bill up front, some companies offer an option to pay over several months.
