ORLANDAO, Fla. -- With almost a month and half to go before the official start of the summer driving seasonFriday, May 25, of the Memorial Day holiday weekendAAA's daily online Fuel Gauge Report is showing a nationwide average price for self-serve regular of $2.866 per gallon.
As crude oil prices remain stuck in the lower $60 to $65 per barrel range, AAA said today it is looking for the U.S. refining industry to begin reporting an increase in domestic fuel inventories by the end of this month. It is important that American refineries and those that import [image-nocss] gasoline to the United States begin demonstrating more gasoline in storage by the end of April if U.S. consumers are to avoid a return of $3 gasoline in many parts of the country, AAA said.
The nation's largest organization for motorists and other travelers said that it has been telling members, the public, media and lawmakers that demand for gasoline is increasing each year as the population and economy grow, and that efforts since the start of the decade have been ineffective at achieving anything close to price stability in the United States.
AAA said average gasoline prices are already more than $2.90 per gallon in 10 states and the District of Columbia. The nine states and there average prices are Arizona, $2.947; California, $3.338; Connecticut, $2.965; Florida, $2.910; Hawaii, $3.076; Illinois, $2.932; Nevada, $2.972; Oregon, $3.067; and Washington, $3105. The average price in the nation's capitol is $2.972 per gallon.
Earlier this year, AAA had said it expected prices to peak and then level off shy of a $3 per gallon national average. AAA remains optimistic that this will happen, but said its outlook has become more cautionary with each passing week.
According to AAA, the price of self-serve regular gasoline was about eight cents lower one year ago today at $2.782 per gallon.
New Jersey has the lowest average price in the nation at $2.662 per gallon. That state is situated where some the nation's largest refining, storage and fuel importation facilities are.
Nationwide, the price of self-serve, midgrade gasoline averages $3.042 per gallon, an increase from $2.710 per gallon in the middle of last month, and up from $2.953 one year ago. Self-serve premium averages $3.152 per gallon nationwide; up from $2.808 one month ago. Premium averaged $3.06 per gallon at this time last year.
The national average prices for self-serve regular unleaded gasoline for AAA's mid-April survey for the last five years are: 2006, $ 2.687; 2005, $ 2.266; 2004, $1.780; 2003, $ 1.595; and 2002, $ 1.411.
AAA's Fuel Gauge Report is based on data from Oil Price Information Service (OPIS), Wall, N.J.
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