pipeline shut downs because of isaac and a refinery fire are partly to blame. heather: president obama campaigning in a battle ground state ahead of the democrat national convention this week. he spoke in colorado where he is hoping to convince voters to give him another four years. white house correspondent ed henry is live with the latest from colorado. ed? reporter: the president had a large proud here, 13,000 people, on the campus of the university of colorado in order to try to get the message out and give us a preview of themes for the democratic convention in charlotte. i ran into a romney spokesman here watching the action. he downplayed the ground saying this is a home game. he has been hitting a lot of college campuses. the college kids who were excited in 2008 and the president trying to get them excited again. the obama campaign is saying
what a jump at the pump. isaac gets some of the blame, prices rising 11 cents since august 22, when the forecasters said the storm could move to the oil rigs and refinery-rich gulf. but the last two months have been tough overall. in august, national average gas prices up 31 cents or 9% a gallon, following the biggest price increase in july, a record. there was a perfect storm of sorts to whip up the prices, isaac, of course, brought on precautionary refinery closures before the hurricane hit. not much damage from the storm. but it takes time to restart them. and two non-hurricane-related mid-west pipeline shut downs and and a refinery fire in california left it at less than full capacity. and the tension in the mideast
rigs, refineries, even a critical pipeline shut down. cnbc s scott cohen is there. the good news is it appears there s been no damage to the oil rigs offshore or refineries along the coast. the issue now is getting them back up and running. the longer that takes, the higher prices could go. reporter: and there was also a ruptured pipeline in wisconsin, a refinery fire in california, an expensive summer gasoline blend. gasoline prices aren t expected to stay this high. between thanksgiving and christmas, the national average may drop to the mid $3 range. and certainly some areas could drop even lower than that. reporter: here s a little bit of gas pump 101 for you. we normally see a spike in price this is time of year because we re seeing the refineries shift from their summer blend over to their winter blend so they have to bring down inventories. the trouble is when you throw in a hurricane and refineries go offline, that causes an even bigger jump in prices. that s exactly wh
countries. we will go to rick on what all of this means for energy production. remember the big fire on the west coast? a huge refinery fire that ended up raising the rice of gas in an enormous way on the west coast. and all the problems overseas, the economy getting a little bit better in europe so gas prices and oil prices are going up. what will this storm affect? that is ahead. most of the pain i experience is neck pain that also becomes headaches. i was very skeptical about aspirin. bayer advanced was completely different. it really did get rid of the pain. put bayer advanced aspirin to the test for yourself at fastreliefchallenge.com.
it was coming because of refinery problems in the midwest, a refinery fire in california. and some strong demand by summer drivers this year. that s why prices were going up already. this is kind of the icing not the icing on the cake, but it raises prices some more because of the threat to oil production in the gulf and refining operations in louisiana and texas. martha: stuart, thank you very much. stuart varney, back in new york. another reason why isaac is expected to have a major impact on the price of gasoline. the storm is expected to be a category one or possibly a two. the gulf of mexico storm at the moment forcing short-term shutdowns of 85% of the oil rigs. martha: context on the