By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com
June 25, 2010
Gasoline prices continued to move higher last week, as the price motorists pay at the pump gained an average of three and a half cents in the last seven days.
The national average price of self-serve regular today is $2.755 a gallon, according to AAA. It's up from $2.719 last Friday but two cents lower than the price a month ago.
The average price of diesel fuel is $2.983 a gallon, compared with $2.966 last week.
Consumers enjoyed an economical start to the summer driving season as oil prices tumbled over concerns about the global economy. But in the last week oil prices have shot back up. Have oil traders decided good times are returning after all?
Impact of currency rates
What happened was China decided it will relax the fixed rate of the yuan against the dollar.
"In the process, this move sparked optimism that China's domestic oil demand is on the rise," said Andrew Delmege, AAA's manager of regulatory affairs. "This development is also expected to boost the purchasing power of business interests and consumers looking to buy oil in China, which currently utilizes about 10 percent of the world's oil supply, second only to the U.S."
Meanwhile, U.S. consumers continue to have access to plenty of gasoline. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported this week that inventories of crude oil and key petroleum products remain above five-year average levels. Gasoline demand actually declined in the latest week, an unheard of development during the summer driving season.
While gas prices are rising, the good news for consumers is it might not be long before prices level off again, or even come down a bit.
The states with the most expensive gasoline today are:
Alaska ($3.501)
Hawaii ($3.459)
California ($3.128)
Washington ($2.997)
Nevada ($2.919)
New York ($2.908)
Utah ($3.907)
Idaho ($2.906)
Oregon ($2.900)
Connecticut ($2.897)
The states with the least expensive gasoline today are:
South Carolina ($2.510)
Missouri ($2.581)
Tennessee ($2.585)
Alabama ($2.585)
Virginia ($2.605)
Georgia ($2.625)
Oklahoma ($2.639)
New Jersey ($2.610)
Texas ($2.616)
North Carolina ($2.635)
