- 10.757 Gallons
- $1.859/Gallon¹
- $20.00
- 289.4 Miles
- 26.9 Miles/Gallon
- 7¢/Mile
- 13 Days
¹ The New York Times Your Money section had this to say about that:
“My gasoline station manager didn’t know that the price of oil was near $50 a barrel,” [James E. Glassman, senior United States economist at J.P. Morgan,] said. “He just knows what the oil company charges him for gasoline when the delivery truck pulls up each night.” That price has been dropping.
The average price of a gallon of mid-grade gasoline hit $2.155 cents in May. But since then it has dropped back to $1.97 a gallon, according to the Department of Energy.
While Reuters had this to say:
The average pump price has fallen about 20 cents per gallon since late May, according to the survey. At the same time, oil prices surged, closing above $46 a barrel on Friday.
“This 12-week trend of price cuts at the pump has to come to an end and soon,” said survey editor Trilby Lundberg. “Gasoline prices are turning around already in the wholesale markets and price hikes will probably appear at the street level very soon.”
NPR also did a piece on how the Pump Prices Dip Even as Crude Oil Rate Soars, saying “Crude oil prices approach $50 a barrel on the worldwide market, emphasizing a months-long trend of soaring demand and potential threats to various oil producers. Yet American motorists have recently enjoyed a small, steady drop in gas prices.” This piece makes it all seem quite reasonable and logical. If I had ever seen this happen before, I might even buy it, but my experience is that when there is even a hint that crude prices will rise, gasoline prices instantly shoot through the roof and when crude prices fall, gasoline prices stay cautiously elevated, just in case the dip is a fluke.
[Update: According to Forbes, crude has settled at $43.18 a barrel… the first positive close for crude futures since last Friday, when prices began their fall from a record high of $49.40.]