Today’s fuel price musings - Why we’re going up faster than the nation…

January 7th, 2009 at 04:24pm Thomas V. Bona

…because we went down faster. That’s the reason one of my industry sources cited, and looking at the data it makes sense. Check out this chart from Illinoisgasprices.com:

You’ll see how, for much of November and December, Illinois’ average was around or below the national average, even though generally it’s a bit above the average (because of taxes, distribution and business costs. So Illinois going up more is offsetting that (you can complain about it, but technically you were paying less than you might have been a couple weeks ago). And my source expects prices elsewhere to rise more later in the week.

Oh, and before you say “See! Oil prices fell more than gas prices” check this out, over a six year period:

In a sense, we’re still recovering from that spike a year ago. Man, that really suckedĀ Here are the prices from this morning, and it seems like little’s changed since (courtesy of AAA’s fuelgaugereport.com):

Gasoline: Rockford rose four cents to $1.89 a gallon. We have the second-highest gas prices in the state, but every metro area in the state rose significantly and they’re close to us. We’re the 53rd-highest of the nation’s 250 metro areas. The Illinois average rose almost five cents to $1.88. The national average rose four cents to $1.63 (EDIT: woops, $1.73). Illinois has the seventh-highest gas prices in the nation, including the District of Columbia. Only Alaska and Hawaii remain above $2 a gallon.

Diesel: Rockford rose more than a cent to $2.46 a gallon. We have the fourth-highest diesel prices in the state. The state average rose more than a cent to $2.54. The national average rose a cent to $2.42. Illinois has the 14th-highest diesel prices in the country. Only Alaska and Hawaii remain above $3 a gallon.

Entry Filed under: Fuel price musings