As Americans take to the road for Christmas travel, they’ve all been given a gift that keeps on giving: falling gas prices. Americans are saving over $13 million dollars an hour versus gas prices a year ago- adding up to over $315 million every day. The national average this morning stands at $2.379/gal across the United States, a 15.7c/gal decline over just the last week.
Seattle’s average is at $2.79 per gallon and is expected to drop more this week. The lowest gas price in Washington as of Monday, Dec. 22 is in Cle Elum at a mere $1.93/gal. Four other gas stations in Washington are below $2/gal. Two are also in Cle Elum and the other two are in Wapato.
The biggest weekly declines were witnessed in Montana, Michigan, Indiana, Idaho, and Ohio, where average prices fell over 20 cents on average just in the last seven days but every state has seen big drops. This morning, just 1 in 4 stations are charging over $2.50/gal for gasoline, while a year ago, 100% of stations were over that level.
Meanwhile, diesel prices have continued to follow gasoline lower. The average price for a gallon of diesel dropped 13.7c/gal in the last week to $3.261/gal. Diesel prices will likely continue to decline, even if gasoline prices begin to stabilize as diesel prices play catch up to the decline.
The biggest declines in diesel prices in the last week have come in the Midwest, with Iowa down 27c/gal, Montana off 26c/gal, South Dakota down 25c/gal, Oklahoma down 23c/gal, and Kansas down 23c/gal.
Just in the last 24 hours, the national average has declined nearly 7c/gallon, one of the largest single day decreases ever. However, I’m worried the decline may soon begin slowing – oil prices have held in the mid-$50s, and the concrete may be setting in. If it does, and oil prices fail to drop below $50/bbl, gas prices likely won’t drop more than another 10-20 cents per gallon. Either way, a sneak peak at our soon to be released 2015 gas price forecast reveals a yearly national average far lower than what we saw this year.
From the GasBuddy.com blog.
