Today’s fuel price musings - Could oil hit $20? Could gas hit $1?

Add comment December 5th, 2008

That all depends. Could the economy hit bottom any time soon? The precipitous drop in fuel prices has been lockstep with the economic downturn - both an actual decrease in demand and projected decreases.

(EDIT - I totally forgot to include the link suggesting those low levels)

As always, don’t expect the lowest price to hit Rockford. If the national average gets near $1, we’d be a bit above that.

I would say I don’t believe prices will get that low … but I’ve been wrong multiple times before. If oiil was soon traded in wampum, I would not be surprised.

On to the prices (Prices courtesy of AAA’s fuelgaugereport.com):

Gasoline: Rockford dropped more than two cents to $1.76 a gallon. We’re tied with the third-highest gas prices in the state (Bloomington and Quincy fell more than us, but we’re now tied with Springfield). We’re tied at 96th of the nation’s 250 metro areas, so we keep falling a bit relative to the rest of the country. The Illinois average dropped more than a cent to $1.75. The national average dropped almost two cents to $1.77. Illinois is tied with the 27th-highest gas prices in the nation, including the District of Columbia. Only Alaska, New York and Hawaii remain above $2 a gallon.

Diesel: Rockford dropped more two cents to $2.77 a gallon. We have the third-highest diesel prices in the state. The state average dropped dropped two cents to $2.81. The national average dropped almost two cents to $2.70. Illinois has the 13th-highest diesel prices in the country. Only Alaska, Connecticut, the District of Colombia, Hawaii and New York remain above $3 a gallon (Hawaii is still above $4).