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Gas Prices Fall for 37 Days

Average price under $4 in California

By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.com

August 22, 2008

The average price for a gallon of regular self-serve gasoline fell throughout the country all week marking 37 consecutive days of declining prices.The cost a gallon of regular now sits at $3.692 a gallon.

One year ago regular gasoline sold for an average price of $2.780, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report.

Mid-grade gasoline sells for a average price of $3.850 and premium sells for $3.966.

Diesel costs $4.320, 52.2 cents less than the record price of $4.845 set July 17.

Gasoline sells for an average of price above $4 a gallon in only two states, Hawaii and Alaska. Drivers in Alaska pay $4.552 a gallon while in Hawaii they pay $4.429 a gallon.

The cheapest average gas prices are found in Missouri at $3.452 a gallon and South Carolina at $3.466.

Gas price roundup

Here is a look at gasoline prices from around the country in ConsumerAffairs.com's weekly Gas Price Roundup:

California: California gas prices fell below $4 a gallon and now average $3.977 dropping 10 cents in the last week.

"Most California regions now have an average price for regular that is below $4 per gallon," said Jeffrey Spring, a spokesman for the Automobile Club of Southern California.

The average price of self-serve regular gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area is $3.976 per gallon, which is 9.5 cents less than last week.

In San Diego, the price is $3.923, which is 10 cents under the price last week.

The most expensive regular gasoline in the state is found in San Francisco at $4.176 a gallon but that is still 6.9 cents less than last week.

The cheapest gasoline in California is found in Stockton at $3.880, which is 8.5 cents less than last week.

"We've seen before where prices that go up can come down," Spring said. "The market has been so volatile in recent months that it's hard to say where it's going to go from here."

Texas: Gasoline prices across the state continued to drop at a significant rate during the week, with a gallon of regular averaging $3.55.

Fort Worth and Houston have the cheapest gas in Texas at $3.48 a gallon dropping 11 cents per gallon.

El Paso has the most expensive gas at $3.66 a gallon.

"While crude oil prices have been trading upwards on world markets, the price is still substantially below the all time high of $147 dollars a barrel reached on July 17. That means consumers have seen prices drop by more than 10 percent in Texas and nationally as well," said AAA Texas Corporate Communications Manager Dan Ronan.

Florida: Tropical Storm Fay boosted gasoline prices in some areas of Florida and the state Attorney General's Office received more than 130 complaints of price gouging related to the storm.

It is illegal in Florida to impose extreme price increases on items including food, water, ice, gasoline or hotel rooms. A majority of the complaints reported were related to gasoline prices.

Regular self-serve now sells for an average price of $3.697 in Florida. Regular sells for $3.720 in Daytona Beach, $3.789 in Miami and $3.651 in Orlando.

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