The average price of gas at pumps nationwide have dropped to a near four-year low of $3.08 a gallon, according to a Lundberg Survey released over the weekend. The price has dropped by 29 cents since last year, representing the lowest average cost of gas in four years, since December 2010.
In just the past two weeks, the average price of gas dropped 18 cents, down from a peak of $3.72 in May 2014.
Gas prices have been steadily falling in recent months, and some states actually have averages less than $3.00. Places typically with high-priced gas, such as Hawaii, Alaska, and major cities like New York tend to distort the national average, but data suggests that drivers are paying less than $3 in about two-thirds of the gas stations nationwide.
Prices are expected to continue to decline amid increasing oil production both in the US and abroad. With the sudden jump in US oil production and a stronger dollar, prices are lower and the trend is not expected to change anytime soon.
“The overwhelming reason why gasoline prices are down us that crude oil prices have fallen. The crude oil price crash has been passed through by refiners,” said Trilby Lundberg, president of Lundberg Survey, which tracks prices at some 2,500 gas stations across the lower 48 states. “Retailers will probably be pressed to pass through at the pump a few more pennies of price-cutting sometime soon.”
At the same time, demand is weak thanks to the growth in fuel efficient vehicles and slowing economic growth in China. Those factors outweigh global issues like the rise of ISIS and the Ebola crisis in West Africa, both which could otherwise send oil prices higher.
According to Lundberg, the cheapest prices could be found in Memphis, Tenn., where gas was going for an average of $2.73 a gallon. San Francisco reportedly has the most expensive gas, at an average of $3.45 a gallon.
“This is not your garden-variety autumn swoon in gasoline prices,” said Tom Kloza, a chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service. “In virtually the entire lower 48 [states], you should be able to find some $3 gas later this year.”
(With reports from CNN, NBC News, and TIME)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(NYNJ October 31 – November 6, 2014 Sec. A pg.4)
