Some relief from suffocating gas prices will likely arrive just in time for summer vacation. Expect a drop of nearly 50 cents as early as June, analysts say.
After rocketing up 91 cents since January, including 44 straight days of increases, the national average last week stopped just shy of $4 a gallon and has retreated to under $3.98. A steady decline is expected to follow.
It might not be enough to evoke cheers from people who recall gas stations charging less than $3 a gallon last year. But it would still ease the burden on drivers. And it might help lift consumer spending, which powers about 70 percent of the economy. A 50-cent drop in prices would save U.S. drivers about $189 million a day.
Typically, gas prices peak each spring, then fall into a summertime swoon that can last several weeks. This year's decline should be gradual but steady, said Fred Rozell, the retail pricing director at the Oil Price Information Service. .
Some drivers might not notice much of a price drop at first, Rozell cautioned. When average gas prices fluctuate nationally, some areas are affected more than others. In cities with many service stations, for instance, prices can be slower to fall. It's even possible prices will rise at some stations in coming days even if they decline nationally.
And after the galloping surge in prices this year, many gas station owners are reluctant to lower prices until they see their competition doing the same, Rozell said.
"It's just the nature of the business," he said. "They're going to try to get the most they can."
Read more
After rocketing up 91 cents since January, including 44 straight days of increases, the national average last week stopped just shy of $4 a gallon and has retreated to under $3.98. A steady decline is expected to follow.
It might not be enough to evoke cheers from people who recall gas stations charging less than $3 a gallon last year. But it would still ease the burden on drivers. And it might help lift consumer spending, which powers about 70 percent of the economy. A 50-cent drop in prices would save U.S. drivers about $189 million a day.
Typically, gas prices peak each spring, then fall into a summertime swoon that can last several weeks. This year's decline should be gradual but steady, said Fred Rozell, the retail pricing director at the Oil Price Information Service. .
Some drivers might not notice much of a price drop at first, Rozell cautioned. When average gas prices fluctuate nationally, some areas are affected more than others. In cities with many service stations, for instance, prices can be slower to fall. It's even possible prices will rise at some stations in coming days even if they decline nationally.
And after the galloping surge in prices this year, many gas station owners are reluctant to lower prices until they see their competition doing the same, Rozell said.
"It's just the nature of the business," he said. "They're going to try to get the most they can."
Read more
6 comments:
Joe,
If we drill in the Country you will see a drop again but Insane Obama does not want this.
He wants us to suffer!
Thank you Mr. President. Any chance you can find time to do something for the Spring?
Obama is doing nothing but waiting for Capitalism to recover on it's own as it always does.Too bad Obama is anti-Capitalist.
Will the prices of everything else go back down? A candybar that I usually get once a week jumped up .20 cents.
Hope in one hand, wish in the other.
This is the typical pattern on gas prices....some "crisis" will cause gas prices to skyrocket. It will cause much handwringing and grief. Then, after letting the price of gas cause fright and pain to the public for a while, the oil companies will "lower" the price (NEVER to its previous level) and Americans will happily cheer the new "low price", which will still be 50 cents or more HIGHER than the pre-crisis price. And we will still be told that tired out mantra --- but we only make 4 cents a gallon profit!!! I predict ANOTHER "crisis" before the end of the year and the cycle will repeat. Guaranteed. I also predict that the hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies (bribes) the Congress gives to the oil companies will not disappear, because, as you know, Congress has our best interests at heart.
Post a Comment