Today’s fuel price musings - The Midwest still leads in gas price increases
1 comment January 8th, 2009
The Midwest is still getting hit harder than the rest of the nation. Another industry source told me yesterday that wholesale prices out of Chicago were 12 cents higher than on the NYMEX, and gas out of Chicago dropped half as much as NYMEX gas yesterday … even though crude fell.
“This tells us that there is a real disconnect between crude and Chicago gas, typically related to supply and refinery margins. I haven’t really looked into this but I think it is all related to reduced refinery runs and demand in the Midwest,” he said.
It’s telling that even though prices in the Rockford metro area rose significantly since yesterday, we went down 10 spaces on the list of U.S. metro areas. Almost half the metro areas above us are in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.
Prices in Rockford seem to have stalled at $1.99 a gallon, and in some cases receded back a cent or two. With crude down again, I expect prices to stabilize or back off a bit … and we’ll work our way down to the bottom of the top third of the country.
Here are the prices (courtesy of AAA’s fuelgaugereport.com):
Gasoline: Rockford rose four cents to $1.93 a gallon and has gone up 24 cents in the past week. We have the third-highest gas prices in the state, with crazy Springfield passing us at $1.94. Bloomington and the Quad Cities are right behind us. We’re tied as the 63rd-highest of the nation’s 250 metro areas. The Illinois average rose five cents to $1.93, a 24 cent increase in the past week. The national average rose more than three cents to $1.76, only a 14 cent increase in the past week. Illinois has the sixth-highest gas prices in the nation, including the District of Columbia. Only Alaska and Hawaii remain above $2 a gallon.
Diesel: Rockford dropped two cents to $2.44 a gallon. We have the fifth-highest diesel prices in the state. The state average rose half a cent to $2.55. The national average rose a cent to $2.43. Illinois has the 14th-highest diesel prices in the country. Only Alaska and Hawaii remain above $3 a gallon.
