Today’s fuel price musings - Prices keep plummeting
October 13th, 2008 at 07:27pm Thomas V. Bona
We’ve dropped under $3.25 in much of the area today, with illinoisgasprices.com reporting several places in Rockford with prices at $3.19 and below. Oil rebounded back above $80 a barrel, so it’s unclear how much farther they’ll drop, but there’s still room for this historic decrease.
Rockford ranks 83rd out of the nation’s 270 metro areas in gasoline prices, down 10 spots from last week. We’ll never be the cheapest, but we’re in line with our historic place
Here are the prices from this morning (as always, courtesy of AAA’s fuelgaugereport.com):
Gasoline: Rockford dropped more than two cents to $3.30Â a gallon. We have the second-highest gas prices in the state. The Illinois average dropped three cents to $3.37. The national average dropped four cents to $3.21. Illinois has the 11th-highest gas prices in the nation.
Diesel: Rockford dropped almost nine cents to $3.80 a gallon. We’re tied with the eighth-highest diesel prices in the state. The state average dropped almost three cents to $3.96. The national average dropped three cents to $3.83. Illinois the eighth-highest diesel prices in the country.
Entry Filed under: Fuel price musings
4 Comments Add your own
1. soundman4507 | October 13th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
It is such a farce to see our gas prices where they are. After the hurricane’s blew through, everyone said the gas prices would come down. That just isn’t happening fast enough. Stations jump the price of gas by .15, .20, .25 cents at a time, but only reduce the price by .01 or .02 cents at a time. That is called profit taking, and to call it anything else is misleading the public.
2. Bendale | October 13th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Stations up in Wisconsin, around Lake Geneva, are posting $2.99 a gallon. Haven’t seen that lately. Lower taxes up there, but looking for it to comeour way soon.
3. Thomas V. Bona | October 14th, 2008 at 9:46 am
soundman - Not sure what you mean by “profit taking” in this context. They are moneymaking ventures, so of course they seek to make profits. And as I noted last week, there’s good reason that prices fall less sharply than they rise. Yes, they often make more money when prices are falling then when they’re rising … because when oil prices spike suddenly, distributors and retailers can’t raise their prices to keep up.
Sorry, but that’s true - from early 2007 through July 2008 oil prices jumped 150 percent. … and for pretty much the whole summer 2008, oil prices were at least 100 percent higher than before the run up.
The *worst* it got for gas prices was about 80 percent higher. Even now, oil prices are 55 percent higher than they were before the runup, but gas prices aren’t even 50 percent higher than they were. Rockford prices are only $1 higher than they were before the runup.
Gas prices in Rockford have dropped 80 cents - a 20 percent decrease - in the past month. That’s an unprecedented drop. Sorry it’s not fast enough for you, but it’s been plenty fast.
4. Thomas V. Bona | October 14th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Ben,
Good to see you hitting the blog.
Lake Geneva may be $2.99, but in general most Wisconsin metro areas are between $3.05 and $3.08 (Madison is higher at $3.17 because like us it depends on the Chicago wholesale market for gas, Milwaukee is lower). Tack on the approximately 13 cent difference in taxes (According to the American Petroleum Institute) and you’re close to our $3.24.
We’ve got room to fall, but I’m not counting on $2.99 here.
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