Gas prices are coming down, easing pressure on consumers
Gas prices have slowly been coming down over the past few weeks.
Katherine Mansfield
Gas prices were down this week, and unleaded self-serve gasoline averaged $4.78 per gallon in Washington. On Tuesday afternoon, prices at the pump along Route 19 near Washington & Jefferson College campus were $4.69.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
While gas prices hovered around $4.78 in Washington Tuesday, folks who filled up along Route 19 past Dunkin’ Donuts paid $4.69 a gallon for regular.
Staff writer
Consumers battered by inflation are getting some unexpected, if slight, relief at the gas pump.
Prices have been slowly sliding away from the $5 mark over the last couple of weeks, with the national average as of Monday at $4.52 per gallon, according to AAA. This is a drop of 15 cents in the last week, and is 46 cents less than a year ago.
The reason? Simple supply and demand. Even though the summer travel season is still in full swing, and consumers have been hitting the road for vacations after two summers of pandemic isolation, surveys indicate they have been scaling back driving in their day-to-day life, according to Jim Garrity, director of public affairs for AAA’s East Central office. Drivers have been consolidating errands or working from home on some days rather than commuting to the office.
“Consumers have a pent-up demand to get out,” Garrity explained. Surveys conducted by AAA indicated that the $4 mark is where consumers would start making changes to their daily travel habits in order to save money and lower their gas consumption.
The average price for a gallon of unleaded, self-serve gasoline in Washington is $4.78. In Uniontown, it’s $4.84, and in Waynesburg it’s $4.72. Uniontown has the highest gas prices in the Pittsburgh metro region, coming in just a hair over Latrobe and Greensburg. The lowest price is $4.65 in Altoona and New Castle. Garrity said there are a handful of factors that come into play with prices in each locality, from the location of distributors to price wars between competing outlets.
“There’s a lot that can happen on the local level,” he said.
And though gas prices have been coming down, they’re still historically high – during the week of July 19, 2021, the average price in the region was $3.31.
On Sunday, Amos Hochstein, an adviser on energy issues to President Biden, said on CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation” that he expected gas prices to soon tumble to about $4 a gallon. On the other hand, some forecasters believe that gas prices could head up again in the fall once stricter sanctions on Russia are implemented. They also point out, though, that any signs of a recession or a resurgent COVID-19 virus might keep prices in check.