Today’s fuel price musings - down below $3.25
October 14th, 2008 at 12:04pm Thomas V. Bona
The average for the Rockford metro area is below $3.25 for the first time since March, and already the average is outdated. Quite a few stations in Rockford proper are just under $3.20 now so the average will be even less when updated tomorrow morning.
To stem the tide of comments that “prices aren’t falling fast enough” I’ll rely again on hard numbers.
Oil prices right now are still about 55 percent higher than they were when the runup began in early 2007. Meanwhile, gas prices - even in Rockford - are less than 50 percent above where they were back then.Gas prices are at a justifiable level given where oil is at. Hopefully, oil doesn’t go back up and we can enjoy deflated prices for a while.
Rockford is tied at 84thout of the nation’s 270 metro areas in gasoline prices, down a spot from yesterday. There are now 74 metro areas below $3 a gallon, up from 51 yesterday. There are still 3 metro areas above $4, but those are in Alaska and Hawaii.
Here are the prices from this morning (as always, courtesy of AAA’s fuelgaugereport.com):
Gasoline: Rockford dropped more than six cents to $3.24Â a gallon. We have the second-highest gas prices in the state - nine cents above East St. Louis while 29 cents behind Chicago. The Illinois average dropped five cents to $3.32. The national average dropped four cents to $3.16. Illinois has the 12th-highest gas prices in the nation.
Diesel: Rockford dropped more than a cent to $3.79 a gallon. We have the seventh-highest diesel prices in the state. The state average dropped three cents to $3.93. The national average dropped two cents to $3.82. Illinois has the 10th-highest diesel prices in the country.
Entry Filed under: Fuel price musings
4 Comments Add your own
1. Bob Trojan | October 14th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
I came through Belvidere last night and it was $3.09; this a.m. on East Riverside, it was $3.25! Maybe you should monitor BV and RK!
2. Thomas V. Bona | October 14th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Not sure what I’d monitor. Sometimes the gap between Rockford and Belvidere is bigger than others. Sometimes one community moves prices at a different rate than another. If they moved in concert, people would accuse them of colluding. Damned if you do…
3. Bob Trojan | October 14th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
How about a Mobile station against another Mobile station? That\’s what I saw. for a savings of $.16/gallon, it would be worth it to drive and get 10 gallons at a time. It\’s not the first time I\’ve seen lower gas in BV. Don\’t forget, we have people who live and work in cross borders!
4. Thomas V. Bona | October 14th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Again not sure your point. The stations are 8 miles apart. Yes, if you live in between, it’s cheaper to go to the Belvidere one (unless you have business in Winnebago County, then you’d be doubling your tracks and wasting your savings). It makes no sense, though, to drive from Riverside to Belvidere to save $1.60 … you spend at least that in gas.
If stations close to each other have a big price imbalance, people will go to the cheaper one, forcing the other to bring the price down. This is the free market at work. Bob, as a longtime businessman, you understand that … I don’t get what your point is in raising this? There’s nothing untoward here … it’s generally cheaper to live in Boone County than Winnebago County on a lot of fronts.
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