The average price of gas in Santa Rosa keeps on sinking and now it’s lower than a year ago.
AAA reports that the average price for regular gas fell to $3.818 a gallon on Tuesday, down about 2 cents from the day before ($3.837), down about 16 cents from a week ago ($3.974), down about 45 cents from a month ago ($4.267) and down about 4 cents from a year ago ($3.856). Santa Rosa’s average fell to less than $4 on June 17.
Patrick DeHaan, a senior petroleum analyst for gasbuddy.com, said recent bad economic news and predictions are driving oil prices and, thus, gas prices down much more than anticipated just a couple of weeks ago.
So much so that, barring some crisis, he expects prices in California to fall to $3.40 to $3.80 in most cities, with some dropping to near $3 later this summer.
In checking gasbuddy.com, where readers report low prices, at least four Santa Rosa stations Wednesday were selling gas for $3.59 — the lowest reported: Costco and three stations near Todd Road and Highway 101 — Shell, Tower and Rotten Robbie.
AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge report showes that among the California cities surveyed Yuba City had the cheapest average gas at $3.711 while San Francisco had the highest at $3.963. The state average was $3.812.
South Carolina had the lowest average at $2.975, while Hawaii was the highest at $4.295.
———-
Follow the Road Warrior on Twitter via @PDRoadWarrior
sheryl
We should all jump for joy now? No worries, it will get lower and lower until the election in November. Then it will go even higher than it was. Watch and see!
June 27th, 2012 11:16 am
James Todd
This is pathetic!
Gas was $1.81 when Obama took office and he’s done everything he can to prevent drilling.
Liberals love to say we’re drilling more now than under Bush, but what they fail to mention (or are too stupid to know) is that thie increases were started under Bush, NOT Obama!
Not only that but they forget how they hypocritically criticized Bush when gas prices went up in 2008 yet defend Obama when gas prices climbed under his presidency.
The hypocrisy of the left is stunning and disgusting! We need Romney in office as he will immediately put his energy plan in place that will increase DOMESTIC production with a portion of that production STAYING in the US and thereby lowering prices.
June 27th, 2012 11:35 am
Sam
I don’t think the president sets the gas prices, those are set by multinational corporations.
Also, it does not matter where the oil comes from; oil is privately owned & sold by those same companies. We have very little oil compared to the rich & vast fields in the middle east that our trickle won’t affect the price per barrel on the international market.
June 27th, 2012 12:51 pm
Mechazawa
James,
The president has nothing to do with gas prices. International demand drives the price of gasoline, not leaders conspiring to put Priuses in your driveway.
The world economy shrank drastically in 2008, causing the price of gas to temporarily plummet. Similarly, Europe’s (and probably the world) is shrinking right now and what we are seeing is a response to that, but of course both happened/are happening against the backdrop of a rapidly developing third world that will cause prices to increase in the long run.
June 27th, 2012 12:51 pm
paul
corporations are given the same rights as people yet they are also allowed to profiteer during emergencies. The price of gas is not connected to production costs, but used by multinational corporations acting in concert without having met in person to achieve economic and political ends. When no politics is envolved, the price is the highest the market will bear with minor fluctuations for each area. SF is highest local because they will pay it. It’s price fixing. It’s illegal and not one person in congress will actually stand up to them, and some are secret pals.
June 27th, 2012 1:35 pm
scot
Headline should read: Gas Prices Still Obscenely High.
June 27th, 2012 1:52 pm
Chris from Santa Rosa
It’s true that international demand is driving the domestic price of petroleum, but that is only part of the story. A big factor in the recent increase was the game being played by money men in the oil futures market.
What the money men did last winter was make huge bets that gas prices would go through the roof. Record long futures early in the year when demand was at a 15-year low didn’t seem like a smart bet, but these folks are bet a *lot* of money that the country would have to deal with $4.50 a gallon soon. And lo and behold, up went both crude and gas, and the long money bets became self-fulfilling prophecies. Very much like what happened in 2008. Funny how that works.
Moral(s) of the story:
1. Our economy is built around easy access to cheap, plentiful energy sources. We ain’t got that anymore.
2. The invisible hand of the market has no effect on gas prices; therefore we can’t do anything by affecting production and demand in the U.S.,
3. We need to have a serious conversation about reining in rampant commodities speculation.
June 27th, 2012 2:36 pm
Marc
Gas prices are still to high compared to a barrel of oil. Just look at the refinery profits in a gallon of gas have skyrocket in the last decade and they know when to shut down for max profits and not lose money. Recently they shut down 5 out of 12 refineries at the Same time and gas prices went up when oil prices dropped.
June 27th, 2012 3:06 pm
The Big Guy
Guess what?….It’s an election year. What’s better for the incumbants than for gas prices to drop and make us happier. If they screw up the ecconomy and can’t fix it…make us happier with better gas prices, we buy more, there’s a little more tax base and it all looks better. We’re all happier with the guys for now. Then they’ll take us all to the cleaners, once we vote ‘em all back again. Enjoy it, while their still wanting our votes! Sure, its a world market, much of which is controlled by governments and those in power with oil holdings and influence. Some people are making a lot of money and it’s not us that are paying at the pump
June 27th, 2012 3:08 pm
Bob Dickman
Very well said Chris from Santa Rosa. Our economy is reliant on inexpensive petroleum products. Oil is still cheap. When oil stops being cheap, smart people will have strategies in place to thrive when oil products become very expensive.
June 27th, 2012 6:09 pm
All Smoke & Mirrors
Funny, It should be alot lower than $3.49 how strange.
June 27th, 2012 7:03 pm
Patrick
This- “Gas was $1.81 when Obama took office and he’s done everything he can to prevent drilling.” is the dumbest talking point in the history of talking points.
As others have pointed out, When Obama took office we had just avoided a world-wide great depression by the skin of our teeth. I’d rather have gas at 3.50 a gallon, then see my retirement savings halved again, thank you very much.
June 29th, 2012 8:15 pm