|
|
Despite the recent run up in the price of oil (yes, I know it’s eased a bit over the last couple of days), the national average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline has continued to fall, and now sits at a four month low.
According to Gasbuddy.com, the nation’s average gas price now stands at $2.80 per gallon, which is roughly 22 cents lower than what we were paying exactly one year ago.
Currently, every state with the exception of Alaska, Connecticut, Nevada and Hawaii, is reporting an average gas price below $3 per gallon. South Carolina has the country’s cheapest gas at $2.54 per gallon, while Hawaii continues to have the highest gas prices, paying, on average, $3.25 per gallon.
While I’m certainly not complaining about the drop in gasoline prices in the face of rising oil prices, it does make me wonder about the validity of last summer’s jump in gasoline prices. If you can remember, the main culprit behind last summer’s rapid increase in gas prices was the fact that the price of oil was seemingly hitting a new record high with each passing day.
Based on this, I think most people expected to pay more at the pump as oil prices jumped – and ultimately set a new record high - last week. Again, not that anyone’s complaining, but it’s enough to make you question why in the heck we were paying so much last year.
At least this year most of the blame for skyrocketing gas prices can be attributed to refinery (i.e. production) issues. That seems to be much more of a credible reason, even though there are plenty of conspiracy theorists that claim refinery production was being manipulated to cause gas prices to jump.
At this point, I don’t think many of us really care, just so long as gas prices continue to fall.