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$3 Gas Just Pennies Away

Average Gas Price Up 70 Cents Over Last April

April 28, 2006
The national average for regular unleaded gasoline is lingering just under $3 a gallon at $2.93. The price is up 2 cents for the week and 43 cents for the month of April.

One year ago the average price was $2.23 a gallon.

Drivers who use midgrade or premium gasoline crossed over the line into $3-a-gallon-land several weeks ago. Midgrade gasoline is now selling for $3.11 a gallon and premium unleaded gasoline is selling for $3.22 a gallon.

Diesel fuel prices stand at $2.95 a gallon, up 2 cents from five days ago and up 30 cents a gallon from one month ago.

People in Jerome, Idaho, pay the least for regular gasoline at $2.36 a gallon. Drivers in Makawao, Hawaii, were paying the highest price, $3.64 a gallon for regular unleaded.

Here is a roundup of gasoline prices from around the country.

Texas: Gasoline prices rose for the eighth week in a row, according to the weekly AAA Texas gasoline price survey.

Self-serve regular averaged $2.89 per gallon across the state, 6 cents more than last week and almost 77 cents more than last year's average.

Auto club spokeswoman Rose Rougeau said in a statement that prices were nearing the record levels seen immediately after Hurricane Katrina disrupted Gulf Coast refineries last year. She had hopeful words for motorists, however.

"By the end of next month, gasoline prices should begin to decline once refineries have completed the switchover from MTBE-blend gasoline to ethanol blend," she said.

The state's costliest gasoline this week was found in Dallas and Fort Worth, where prices rose 6 cents to an average of $2.96 per gallon. The cheapest was in San Antonio, where it averaged $2.80 per gallon, up 3 cents from last week.

Dozens of service stations around Houston and Dallas are out of gasoline after transportation problems resurfaced with the switch to a new anti-smog fuel blend using ethanol.

Oregon: Eugene-Springfield gas prices soared past their previous record of $2.92 per gallon of regular, averaging $2.94.

Prices in Eugene ranged from $2.89 to $3.10 per gallon of regular, according to AAA's random survey of local stations. The range in Springfield was $2.89 to $3.06.

California: For the second week in a row, gasoline prices have increased by double digits in every California market surveyed by the American Automobile Association.

Nowhere is gasoline averaging under $3 a gallon, the AAA says, although a separate report from Gasbuddy.com lists individual gas stations in Fairfield, Sacramento, Suisun City, Vacaville, Carmichael and Blythe with posted prices under the $3 mark.

The lowest average price found in the AAA survey anywhere in California overnight is in Stockton at $3.082, but that’s an increase of 12.6 cents since last week.

Again this week, the highest California average is in Santa Barbara, now at $3.297, up 13.8 cents since last week.

The average price of self-serve regular gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area is $3.197, which is 16.8 cents higher than last week.

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