Aug 20, 2008 2 min read

For the second consecutive week, Western PA motorists will see an eight-cent decrease in their fuel costs when they pull up to the pump. The average price for a gallon of regular, unleaded, self-serve gasoline in Western PA currently stands at $3.699 after the 8.7 cent drop. According to the AAA Fuel Gauge, the nationwide average price of self-serve regular gasoline dropped below $3.75 per gallon over the weekend and is $3.73 today. This is a 43 cent drop since the middle of last month; however the price remains nearly one dollar per gallon higher than one year ago.

The price of oil also remains under downward pressure this week despite continuing tensions in the nation of Georgia which is home to a major oil pipeline and a port on the Black Seas as well as brief but misplaced concern that Tropical Storm Fay could veer into the Gulf of Mexico and cause some problems for oil shippers. Oil is trading near

$113 per barrel today and most analysts are anxious to see if the price can remain above the psychologically important $110-per-barrel level.

Lower oil and gasoline prices continue to reflect slowing demand for petroleum products in the United States and Europe, as well as recent strengthening of the dollar against the Euro and the British Pound. This is important because oil is traded in dollars on the commodity exchanges in London and New York.

How energy prices will behave later this year is still anyones guess because the duration and severity of the global economic slowdown remains unknowable. While the world economy could be entering a prolonged slow, or no growth period which would help depress energy

prices over the long term, the economy could also show surprising resiliency over the next few months because of the lower price of oil and other essential commodities.

This weeks average prices: Western PA Average . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3.699

Average price during the week of August 12, 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3.786

Average price during the week of August 21, 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2.739

The following is a list of the average price of unleaded self-serve gasoline in various areas:

$ 3.598 Altoona

$ 3.725 Beaver

$ 3.826 Bradford

$ 3.492 Brookville

$ 3.709 Butler

$ 3.716 Clarion

$ 3.703 Du Bois

$ 3.700 Erie

$ 3.702 Greensburg

$ 3.708 Indiana

$ 3.708 Jeanette

$ 3.715 Kittanning

$ 3.697 Latrobe

$ 3.695 Meadville

$ 3.699 Mercer

$ 3.683 New Castle

$ 3.661 New Kensington

$ 3.730 Pittsburgh

$ 3.779 Sharon

$ 3.703 Uniontown

$ 3.758 Warren

$ 3.680 Washington

AAA East Central is a not-for-profit association with 84 local offices in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, New York and Kentucky servicing 2.5 million members.

-AAA