Southern California drivers can rest easy knowing gas prices will stay comparatively low for the year, but will likely rise from current levels as the summer months approach, according to an assessment from GasBuddy.com.
While long-range gasoline predictions are harder to make because of unforeseeable events, such as refinery fires, global supply disruptions and geopolitical tensions, GasBuddy predicts the prices will drift higher in the spring, when refiners switch to the special formulation sold in California to reduce pollution during the summer.
Fuel prices in Los Angeles should settle into a range of $3.20 to $3.45 a gallon for regular gasoline between Memorial Day and Labor Day, but could peak above that at times, said GasBuddy, which regularly tracks local prices.
Los Angeles gas prices averaged $2.569 this week, down $1.11 from last year.
“Gasoline prices this week collapsed to levels not seen since December 2008—when average retail Los Angeles gas prices were $1.70 to $1.80 per gallon,” Jeffrey Spring of the Automobile Club of Southern California told the Los Angeles Times.
A “good” price for gas today is between $2.25 and $2.40 per gallon in most Southern California areas, Spring said.
Prices tend to be highest in the northern and eastern areas of the metropolitan city area, including Santa Monica, Hollywood, Beverley Hills, Glendale, and Pasadena. They tend to be lowest in the south and southeast areas like Long Beach, Downey, Compton, Whittier and Glendora.
Los Angeles is the ninth-most expensive out of 444 US metropolitan areas tracked by GasBuddy in 2014.
(With reports from Los Angeles Times)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Weekend January 17-20, 2015 Sec. D pg.2)
