AASHTO Journal, 4 December 2015
Pump prices for gasoline continued to fall through the big Thanksgiving holiday travel period and into December, leaving average U.S. gas prices barely above $2 a gallon and well below that level in many states.
The Energy Informational Administration reported after its Nov. 30 weekly pricing survey of fueling stations that gas averaged $2.059 that day and was 71.9 cents lower than at the same point in 2014. It had fallen about 12 cents in the latest two weeks.
The AAA motor club, which tracks prices daily, earlier predicted that the national average gas price would tumble below $2 by Christmas.
AAA reported an average pump price of $2.038 a gallon on Dec. 1. And it listed 21 states that day with average gas prices below $2.
This second year of sharply falling prices comes as more states have acted to increase fuel taxes, among various measures to increase revenues for transportation infrastructure investments. The falling costs of motor fuel have more than offset state hikes in per-gallon excise fees, leaving their residents paying less for fuel even after locking in more project funding.
Officials in other states are considering such actions as they face a growing backlog of project needs without enough revenue to pay for them. (See related story on Tennessee in this week’s States section.)
The falling fuel price trend also comes as traffic volumes have been growing for at least 19 straight months and setting new record highs.
Besides the fuel cost break enjoyed by drivers of passenger cars, the falling prices are also cutting the cost of diesel fuel used by cargo trucks across the supply chain. The EIA said diesel averaged $2.421 a gallon on Nov. 30, and was down $1.184 from a year earlier.
Most trucking companies assess fuel surcharges tied to the EIA’s weekly diesel price report in addition to their freight rates, and have been slicing their surcharges as fuel costs fall.