With a holiday weekend beginning Friday, the cost of gas will be on some people’s minds, along with the traditional fireworks and cookouts.

Some students are seeing the increase in gas prices and must make decisions about whether driving somewhere is necessary. Others are determined not to let the high price of gas spoil their plans for the Fourth of July.

Denzel Smith, who will be a freshman majoring in architecture this fall, has decided to cutback on some activities while gas prices are high, including going to matinees at the movies and going out to eat.

‘I don’t have to buy a $35 meal when I can eat at home,’ he said.

While Smith has decided to cut back on restaurants and movies because of the price of a gallon of gas, others are not going to let the price impact their holiday plans.

Jude Riedy, a senior majoring in accounting, has not let the price of gas impact his plans, because he is already in debt.

‘My philosophy is I’m so far in the red, a couple more dollars probably won’t hurt,’ he said.

The price of a gallon of gas is determined by several different factors, which contribute to the increases and drops in the price people pay at the pump.

Paul Hesse, an information specialist for the Energy Information Administration, described the way gas prices are broken down by different processes.

For April 2009, crude oil makes up over half the price of a gallon of gas, he said. Twenty percent went to taxes, 12 percent for refining the oil into gasoline and 12 percent for the distribution and marketing of the product.

The market, which decides how much oil will cost, also controls the price of gas, he said.

Hesse added the price could also be influenced by greater demand worldwide for growing markets like those found in China and India.

‘Demand is going up, so the price will probably go up as well,’ he said.

Hesse knows of only one way to ease the price of a gallon of gas.

‘Don’t buy any, it’s supply and demand,’ he said.

Kevin Quinn, an associate professor of economics, agrees with growing markets being a contributing factor in the increase of a gallon of gas but also sees speculators in the marketplace as another factor of gas prices.

Speculators hold onto oil, because of the expectation that the price will go higher, which will help to make the oil prices rise immediately, he said.

‘It’s a world market so any disruption in the market will be felt everywhere,’ he said.

Quinn gave an example of how the world market controls the price of gasoline everywhere.

‘If prices go way up in Iran, [people] will go somewhere else to get oil, and that would drive the price up,’ he said. ‘If a good sells for two different prices people will buy where [oil] is cheap, and want to sell [oil] where it’s more expensive.’