By Reuters | 11 Dec 2007 | 12:16 PM ET Gasoline to Peak Over $3.40 a Gallon Next Spring: EIA The U.S. average retail gasoline price is expected to peak at a record of over $3.40 a gallon at the start of next spring's driving season, the Energy Information Administration said Tuesday. "Both motor gasoline and diesel prices are projected to average well over $3 per gallon in 2008, with gasoline prices peaking at over $3.40 per gallon next spring," the EIA said its new monthly energy forecast. The current all-time high national price for gasoline is $3.22 a gallon set last May. The average U.S. pump price is now at a 6-week low of $3 a gallon.
let's translate for us LA people $3.26 is the average for today... $3 dollars right now.. so a relative difference of 26 cents So next spring... expect our gas to be $3.64 cents... i thought we were going to hit the 4 dollar mark soon... darn...
Yeah, $3.40/gal doesn't sound all that high to me. Here's a chart from gasbuddy.com showing the historic gasoline average in the US for the last five years. You can see that December is usually the lowest point of the year:12/25/2004, 12/20/2005, 12/15/06. While it's odd that the price hasn't dropped this year like it has every other year, I certainly hope that the upswing next year isn't as great as history shows. Because if it follows the same scale as the last two years where it went from a December low of $2.15 to a high of $3.00+ then we're looking at a swing from a December "low" of $3.00 to a high of $3.85.
midwest gas prices Not quite as official, but here's the chart I've made from tracking the gas prices I've paid since Jan 2000 (I actually have a couple more months of data from late '99, but it's cleaner to start from Jan and it doesn't change the image noticeably). Notice the low point was a few months after 9/11 and the Iraq war really didn't do much, but Katrina did, and as a note, last spring/summer Chicago had the highest prices in the nation for awhile, so this may not be exactly what you would plot for your area, but in general it's probably pretty close.
Today at Costco (Azusa, CA, east of LA), I paid $3.129. Lowest I've seen in at least a month. They raise it .25, and lower it a dime. That way we won't notice the constant increase. Yeah, right.
If you folks want to see high gas prices, come to the S.F. Bay Area. Two days ago, I filled up and paid 3.41/gallon for Chevron 87 unleaded. I am already north of $3.40/gallon. It will easily be north of $4.00/gallon in the S.F. Bay Area by Memorial Day, 2008.
In the Sacramento area, we have been at ~$3.35 for at least the last month. I think we will see $4 next spring here also.
I've been tracking my fuel costs since June. I've purchased my gas in the Bay Area (typically Pleasanton), regular unleaded, at stations like Shell. Highest prices = $3.50/gallon - Nov 17 and Nov 24, 2007 Lowest prices = $2.78/gallon - August 30, 2007 I think one of the issues driving the non drop in December is that the refineries were doing their annual "overhaul/shutdown" last March/April instead of at the end of the year. I remember thinking that the refiners were helping gas prices stay high because as the price of oil/barrel was dropping, the refiners were shutting down plants for annual maintenance, so we didn't see a benefit at the pump. Just because you're paranoid DOESN'T mean they aren't out to get you.....
