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Gas Price Surge Stalls

Prices retreat slightly but not much relief in sight

By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.com

March 21, 2008

Gasoline prices across the country retreated from the record high of $3.285 set earlier in the week. Consumers however, are unlikely to see much relief as gas prices are still sharply higher from where they were a year ago with the national average price for a gallon of regular at $3.275, according to the AAA Web site.

One year ago a gallon of gas cost consumers $2.572 and one month ago a gallon sold for an average price of $3.053.

The cheapest gallon of gasoline found in the country is on sale in Dover, New Jersey for $2.88. Gasoline is selling for more that $4 a gallon at a handful of filling stations on the West Coast and in Hawaii.

Here is a look at some gasoline prices from around the country in the ConsumerAffairs.com Gas Price Round Up:

California: Most areas in the state saw very little net change in prices over the week as prices eased off slightly from record levels.

"Prices continued to set new all-time records in most areas until Monday or Tuesday of this week, and then started declining very slightly," said Jeffrey Spring, a spokesman for the Automobile Club of Southern California.

“With just a couple of days of very small price declines, it's too early to tell if we've reached a spring peak or we're at a plateau," Spring said.

Gasoline prices in California are running about 50 cents a gallon higher than at this time last year, according to AAA.

The average price of self-serve regular gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area is $3.615, which is 2.3 cents higher than last week.

In San Diego, the price is $3.633, which is 1.4 cents more than last week's price. California’s highest average price continues to be found in San Francisco at $3.768. That is one penny higher than a week ago.

Texas: Gas prices around the state set new daily records until earlier this week, then prices began declining slightly, according to the AAA Texas Weekend Gas Watch.

The current Texas average increased by a penny to nearly $3.18 a gallon, just two-tenths of a cent below the all-time record price of $3.178.

El Paso has the lowest average on the list at $3.12 a gallon, up by half a cent. Galveston has the highest average price at $3.19 a gallon, up nearly four cents from last week.

"It's unclear whether the slight price declines in the last couple of days signal that we've reached a peak, or just a plateau," said AAA Texas spokesperson Rose Rougeau. "The declines have been just a fraction of a cent.”

Florida: Despite gas prices moving ever closer to $4 a gallon, Florida hoteliers are bullish on the upcoming summer season and some already have the reservations on the books to prove it.

In some areas of the state, rooms are filling up faster than in summer 2007, when an unusual number of visitors vacationed well beyond the traditional season.

But all of that could change.

Almost 40 million people drove to Florida last year but that was down 5.5 percent from the 2006 level in part becaue gasoline cost an average of $3 per gallon.

This year, Florida tourism officials are counting on vacationers wanting to get away from it all and hope that higher gas prices only deter a small number of families from coming to the state.

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