Skip to footer

Finally, gas prices begin to fall

The seasonal decline in gas prices is later than usual. So, while the national average retail price is down to $3.72, that's still a record for gas prices this time of year.

|
Reed Saxon/AP/File
A gasoline pump shows a customer has spent $40.00 for just eight gallons of gasoline at a Shell station in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles in this October 2012 file photo. Relief has finally come in the form of gas prices' seasonal slide.
  • By David J. Unger Contributor

Motorists can relax a little, because the seasonal slide in gas prices has finally begun.

After 11 straight days of decline, the national average retail price of gasoline dipped to $3.72 Friday, down from a summer peak of $3.87.

But this year's decline has been delayed. Thus, Americans are still paying record-high prices for this time of year – and will continue to pay them for some time.

After jumping 9 percent in August, gas prices rose 7 percent in September, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The cost of gas has increased for three straight months. The reason?

The summer has been rife with refinery and pipeline complications. Supplies ran thin at the height of road trip season, raising prices and adding to the financial distress felt by many Americans. 

For Californians, the summer went out with a bang. Drivers endured record hikes in early October as California eeked past Hawaii as the most expensive state for gasoline.

Prices there have since stabilized, but California lags behind the rest of the country in starting the seasonal slide. The average price of gas was $4.51 in California Friday, 79 cents higher than the national average, according to GasBuddy.com, a group of local websites that track gasoline prices.  

"If you're along the West Coast, specifically California, you have my sympathy," wrote Patrick DeHaan of GasBuddy.com on Tuesday. "Prices just aren't coming down fast enough – but at least they're coming down and not going up." 

Every fall, prices drop as oil producers switch to cheaper winter-blended gasoline and the closing of driving season drives down demand. 

Despite the decline, gas is still 27 cents more expensive than it was one year ago. The daily average price had been the highest on record for that particular calendar day for eight straight weeks, according to a report Monday by AAA, a federation of motor clubs that is based in Heathrow, Fla. AAA predicts a further slide in gas prices, coupled with continued daily records through the end of the year.

Still, as Mr. DeHaan points out, there's good news ahead:

"[F]or the abundance of Americans who consume gasoline in their primary vehicles, the time has finally come: The drop in gasoline prices is coming."

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Finally, gas prices begin to fall
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Energy-Voices/2012/1019/Finally-gas-prices-begin-to-fall
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe