Today’s fuel price musings - Threat of refinery strike ups gas prices

January 30th, 2009 at 05:00pm Thomas V. Bona

I was sitting here writing about how Rockford area gas prices have dropped seven cents in the past week and a half, while the national average stayed where it was. That was such nice, happy news.

Aaaaand, then prices spiked today. They’re $1.99 a gallon around Rockford, up at least 10 cents. They’re also up to $1.99 in Springfield and over $2 in the Chicago suburbs, according to Illinoisgasprices.com.Why? Because of fears that a refinery strike this weekend could idle half the nation’s capacity. While there’s hope it’ll get settled before the Sunday deadline, the markets always get spooked when such things are unsettled at the Friday close. If it gets settled, look for prices to fall back down. If it doesn’t … hooo boy.

Here are the prices from this morning, before things got ugly (courtesy of AAA’s fuelgaugereport.com):

Gasoline: Rockford dropped slightly to $1.86 a gallon. We’re tied at fifth in the state and were tied at 115th of the nation’s 280 metro areas, quite a good place to be given our above-average taxes. The Illinois average dropped slightly to $1.91. The national average rose slightly to $1.85. Illinois has the 12th-highest gas prices in the nation, including the District of Columbia. Alaska, California, Hawaii, Nevada and Washington average more than $2 a gallon.

Diesel: Rockford dropped three cents to $2.35 a gallon. We have the fifth-highest diesel prices in the state. The state average dropped slightly to $2.50. The national average dropped a cent to $2.39. Illinois is tied with the 14th-highest diesel prices in the country, including the District of Columbia. Only Alaska, D.C. and Hawaii remain above $3 a gallon.

Entry Filed under: Uncategorized