Today’s fuel price musings - waiting for the other, oily shoe to drop

March 6th, 2008 at 12:14pm Thomas V. Bona

By now, you’ve heard about record oil prices fueled by the falling dollar, declining supplies and OPEC’s decision to not increase production. And, like me, you’re waiting for gas prices to spike.

Well, they haven’t yet, at least not in Illinois. And while national averages have been rising, if you look at the chart on AAA’s fuelgaugereport.com, you’ll see the big spike in crude oil prices hasn’t been matched in wholesale or retail prices. And lately, crude prices have made up 68 percent of the price of gas. Expect to see increases here soon.

And now, more on today’s prices (data courtesy of AAA’s fuelgaugereport.com):

Gasoline: Rockford increased a tenth of a cent, holding at $3.13 a gallon. We’re still below the state average, which dropped almost a penny to $3.15 a gallon. For the second day in a row, we’re even below the national average, which increased almost a penny to $3.18 a gallon. We’re back up to to third in the state, as East Saint Louis fell two cents to $3.11. The Quad Cities remains the top in the state at $3.20

Diesel: Good (but temporarily?) news for diesel users. Rockford dropped three cents to $3.76 a gallon, even though Illinois and the nation went up. We dropped to seventh in the state, with the biggest drop of any metro area. The state average rose a penny to $3.83, while the national average rose a penny to $3.71. Chicago remains on top and increased 3 cents to $3.93, so the $4 watch is back on. Illinois has the 12th-highest diesel prices in the country.

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