Today’s fuel price musings - the slow descent continues

August 7th, 2008 at 05:25pm Thomas V. Bona

Though oil prices rose back over $120 a barrel today because of a Turkish pipeline fire, analysts suggest prices will continue their general downward trend because of falling demand. Meanwhile, fuel prices keep slipping slightly.

Check out our new Gas Tracker feature to see where the best prices in your town are, and add prices you see. The more trackers we have, the better information we’ll have. And please, keep it to Rock River Valley gas stations … I don’t want to cover Tulsa!
Here’s the situation in the metro area, state and nation (prices courtesy of AAAs fuelgaugereport.com):

Gasoline: Rockford dropped two cents to $3.87 a gallon. We’re down to fifth in the state in gas prices. The Illinois average dropped a cent to $3.96. The national average dropped  more than a cent to $3.85. Illinois rose to 12th-highest gas prices in the nation (including the District of Columbia). AAA shows an interesting chart on national trends:

You’ll notice that, yes, gas prices are falling slower than oil and wholesale gas prices.But that’s because the gap between those has been smaller than average since the oil run-up started, and retailers are recovering some margins. If the chart went back farther, you’d see that oil rose faster than gasoline last year

Diesel: Rockford  dropped a fraction of a cent to remain at $4.52 a gallon, down 31 cents in the past month. We have the ninth-highest (third-lowest) diesel prices in the state. The state average dropped almost two cents to $4.64, down 19 cents in the past month. The national average dropped two cents to $4.61, down 19 cents in the past month. Illinois has the 20th-highest prices in the country (including the District of Columbia).

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