Gas Price Increase Slows As 2011 Begins

The bad news about gasoline prices is they're still over $3 in most areas of the country. The good news is climbing prices appear to have slowed, at least for now.

The average price of self-serve regular today is $3.083, according to AAA. That's just a penny higher than last Friday and about 38 cents a gallon higher than the price last at this time last year.

Oil prices, which were closing in on $100 a barrel a week or so ago, have fallen in the last week as the U.S. dollar, which is used to price crude oil, has shown some surprising strength. But don’t expect gas prices to drop much, if at all. Despite the higher prices, consumers aren’t reducing their driving.

"U.S. gasoline consumption jumped 4.6 percent week-on-week to 9.4 million barrels per day for the week ending December 24, up 3.9 percent from the same week in 2009," said Andrew Delmege, AAA’s manager of regulatory affairs. "Even though this might look like a substantial increase, a comparison of four-week averages showed a year-on-year decline of 0.4 percent, and the year-to-date gasoline demand showed only mild growth for 2010 to 0.3 percent versus 2009."

As gas prices have risen sharply over the last month, there have been geographic adjustments to prices. Now, the cheapest gas is found in the mountain west states instead of the southeast. The most expensive gas remains Alaska and Hawaii as well as the northeast and Pacific west states.

The states with the most expensive gasoline today are:

• Hawaii ($3.689)

• Alaska ($3.546)

• California ($3.342)

• New York ($3.324)

• Connecticut ($3.286)

• Illinois ($3.226)

• Washington ($3.203)

• Maine ($3.164)

• Vermont ($3.163)

• Oregon ($3.163)

The states with the least expensive gasoline today are:

• Utah ($2.809)

• Wyoming ($2.822)

• Colorado ($2.851)

• Missouri ($2.905)

• Texas ($2.924)

• South Carolina ($2.926)

• Oklahoma ($2.935)

• New Mexico ($2.938)

• Mississippi ($2.939)

• Tennessee ($2.949)