Local Gas Price Watch

Last Sunday, I filled up my car at a local Lukoil station, which sold one gallon of regular gas for $2.19. I don’t remember when was the last time I saw gas price so low, but it must be at least six months ago. Early last month, when we traveled to Camden, the cheapest gas was at $2.44 per gallon while in my area the price was $2.59. So I won’t be surprised if somebody tells me the gas price in southern NJ is already below $2.

In a little over a month, we have seen gas prices in continuous downward spiral, from near $3 to close to $2. While the trend is welcome, I just couldn’t understand what force was behind the decline. For me, nothing has changed: the world isn’t getting safer, the Iran nuclear issue remains deadlocked at the UN, Iraq is still in a chaos, China again predicted a 10+% GDP growth for the year, BP only started testing its Alaska pipeline late last month, and the newly discovered oil reserve in the Gulf of Mexico is years aways from having an impact on gas prices. So exactly what brought down the gas price? Did people all of a sudden stop driving?

As one people said on my local radio last Friday, “The gas price will go up again after the election.”

Maybe that’s the reason! I simply don’t know.