US average gas price rises just above $3 per gallon

Gasoline prices rose to above $3 per gallon on average Wednesday as parts of the Southeast saw significant shortages on Wednesday. 

According to the American Automotive Association (AAA), the average gasoline prices around the country was $3.008. 

The last time the country averaged $3 per gallon was 2014, though it has come close since then, reaching $2.97 at one point in 2018. 

Prices are up by a little more than a cent from Tuesday, when they averaged $2.985 per gallon. Prices are up nearly 15 cents from a month ago. 

The spike followed a ransomware cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline, which says it supplies about 45 percent of the fuel consumed on the East Coast.  Following the attack, the company chose to shut down to limit the access the hackers had to its system. 

Nearly 25 percent of gas stations in North Carolina, 15 percent of gas stations in Georgia and Virginia, and 13 percent of gas stations in South Carolina were out of fuel as of Wednesday morning, according to GasBuddy. 

Florida and Maryland each saw outages at about 4 percent of their stations.