By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com
January 22, 2010
After jumping in the last weeks of 2009 and the first weeks of 2010, the price of gasoline may have found a plateau, at least for now.
Nationwide, the average price of self-serve regular today is $2.727 a gallon, according to AAA. That's down from $2.757 last Friday.
The price of diesel fuel is $2.91 a gallon, down about a penny a gallon from last week.
As usual, Alaska and Hawaii have the most expensive gas this week, but of the lower 48 states, California prices are highest, with a statewide average of $3.041 a gallon. The average price in San Francisco is $3.124 a gallon, making it the highest in the state. Yuba City has the cheapest average price in the state, at $2.924 a gallon.
Other expensive states include New York, at $2.94, Connecticut at $2.90 and Washington at $2.89 a gallon.
The cheapest gas in the nation can be found in Missouri, at $2.544, Wyoming, at $2.556 and Oklahoma, at $2.564 a gallon.
Oil prices slumped earlier this week and fell even further when China accounted it was putting curbs on bank lending. That suggests that world-wide economic growth might be slower than expected, meaning there will be less demand for energy.
In the U.S., there is already a considerable surplus of oil and gasoline, which until now, has not had much effect on prices at the pump. Now that oil traders on Wall Street are selling their positions, consumers are finally finding a little relief.
"Domestic economic health has emerged as a central issue in the direction of oil and retail gasoline prices in the first month of the year," said Andrew Delmege, AAA's manager of regulatory affairs. "Indeed, for the past several months the markets have been watching and waiting to hear a steady stream of positive news about domestic economic activity able to support higher oil prices."
However, Delmege says there appears to be some degree of reconsideration among investors on the condition of the US economy and the prospects for a quick turnaround in the first half of 2010. Much of economic data on the state of the economy has been mixed, or at best only slightly positive, for the past several weeks.
