Return of $3 gasoline
For the first since March, St. Louis drivers can pump $3-a-gallon gas into their cars.
Mike Right of AAA Missouri said the average cost of gasoline dipped to $2.99 a gallon over the weeked, largely because crude oil prices have momentarily returned to Earth. (Crude reached about $150 a barrel in mid-July and now hovers above $80 a barrel).
“We’re still about 45 cents above where we were this time last year,” Right said.
But compared to the $4 prices motorists saw over the summer, it was a welcome bit of economic news at a time when people are jittery about job security and the stock market. It is a “significant decrease and it’s going to help everybody’s budget,” Right said.
For now. How long the relatively affordable gasoline lasts is anyone’s guess.
St. Louis usually enjoys some of the nation’s cheapest gasoline. Elsewhere, the national average remains above $3 a gallon, Right said.
We’re in the downward price seasonal for gasoline and it should be dropping all the way until just before New Year’s Day. Enjoy it while it lasts!!!
Gas is $2.69 a gallon in Washington, right across from Barreth Chrysler!
I’m encouraged by the dip in prices but by no means is this a deal. I won’t be willing to call it reasonable until it’s back in the $1.50-1.89 per gallon range. IF it ever gets back that low.
We should not all go and party on this news. The big companies are riding another windfall, while the prices come down slowly to what they should be right now - around $2.30. Keep emphasizing change and riding your bicycle or high mileage vehicle. Screww big oil.
Enjoy it while it lasts… Who knows what the market will do when OPEC meets in November and probably cuts supply. Days of gas under $2 are gone, maybe even $3. Wouldn’t shock me if gas remains above $3 in 2009 and stays that way until we finally stop using oil altogether.
Please folks. About three and a half years ago gasoline was less than $1.50 a gallon. It shot up to $3.00, then fell back, going just under $2.00 briefly before shooting back up for a while into the high $2 range. Then it exploded to over $4.00. Now that it is only three, people are acting like it is cheap. The main reason it fell back from over $4 is because people were forced to use less, they just couldn’t pay the $4+. They had to find alternative means. It was one thing to complain about $3 but quite another to be forced to alter driving habits. And over the last couple of years, people purchased more fuel efficient cars. But let’s not get complacent. Continue to use less if you can, like when it shot up over $4, and it will drop even further. $2 a gallon is not out of the realm of possibility. Regardless of what your candidate for president says about what he will do, only markets are going to make the real difference, and that is you and me. If we let the politicians try and control the price, we’ll be setting an artificial lower limit as well as a high. Please have faith in yourself that we as consumers can bring the price down. Let’s let the candidates for president work on the really hard issues, like ensuring our social security income for retirement. That’s right, some won’t even address the issue, but instead want us to believe that oil is the most important crisis, then financial markets, then education. For those of you who watched the second debate, when Barrack was asked to prioritize which was most important, oil crisis, financial markets, or entitlements by Tom Brokaw, he answered that oil was #1, financial markets #2, and,as time was ending, said, “then education”. He couldn’t even bring himself to say the word entitlement. We as consumers can affect the price of gasoline, with some government regulation we can get a handle on the financial markets, but only the government make the social security pension fund solvent. It’s the tough issue.
I bought gas last Friday 10/10/08 in Higginsville, MO right outside of KC for $2.62. I had bought it in St. Louis the night before for $3.17. I had to drive from StL to KC and back on Friday. East of Columbia, prices hovered at $3 per gallon, but west of Columbia I didn’t see anything over $2.69. What’s up with that?
We are getting screwed with our gas prices now. My parents live in Michigan, where the gas tax is higher than Missouri, and their gas prices are comparable to ours. Now, I am may not be an economist, but the state with the lower gas tax should have the lower gas prices, right? The prices aren’t going to stay low…the price of a barrel of oil went up today because the market is rebounding. The under $3 gas is benefiting my transport costs, but my natural gas bill isn’t seeing any effect at all (in fact, my budget billing just went up about $30/month).
$2.59 at Costco this morning. I don’t know how they do it but I don’t care. It more than pays for the membership fee.
It is still a crooked shame that the crude prices (which were cited as the cause of expensive gas) have dropped by almost 50%, but pump prices haven’t fallen at a similar rate.