Daily Fuel Economy Tip

Gas Prices Inching Closer to $4

The price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline climbed above $3.97 today, and continued its relatively rapid climb towards the $4 mark. Before this year, the national average price for a gallon of gas had never climbed above $3.25.

Currently, Wyoming is reporting the lowest state-wide average price at just over $3.76 per gallon, while Alaska is reporting the highest state-wide average price at a whopping $4.37 per gallon. As of this afternoon, 13 states plus Washington, D.C., are reporting average gas prices above $4 per gallon.

Gas prices were kept in check today by the falling price of crude oil, which has shed nearly 7% since hitting its all-time high of $135.09 per barrel.

Over the past month, the national average price for a gallon of gas has jumped nearly 10%, and is up over 33% since the beginning of the year. At the same time last year, we were paying roughly $3.15 for a gasoline, which equates to a 26% year over year price increase.

This past week, the price of gasoline climbed only four cents per gallon, which was certainly welcome news for most of America’s motorists. While it’s unlikely that gas prices have finished their meteoric rise, hopefully this past week’s slowdown is an indication that we’re nearing this summer’s peak price.

That being said, all bets are off if we were to have a major supply disruption. In fact, some experts are predicting that we may even see $6 gas this summer should the hurricane season be as strong and destructive as the 2005 season which produced hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Obviously, all of us hope that this isn’t the case, but it’s looking like this summer might end up being a situation where we hope for the best, plan for the worst and get something a little in between.

 EMAIL THIS POST TO A FRIEND