Gas Prices | featured news

A second month of sharp gains in gasoline costs drove wholesale prices higher in September. But outside of the surge in energy, prices were well contained.

For the fourth straight day, California has a new record for gasoline prices, but the rise has apparently lost nearly all of its momentum.

Gov. Jerry Brown intervened in the unrelenting climb of gasoline prices by calling for the immediate release of a cheaper, but less environmentally friendly, blend of gasoline. Brown directed the California Air Resources Board on Sunday to permit oil companies to start selling winter-blend gasoline, which evaporates more quickly in warm weather than the summer blend. Normally, winter blend isn't permitted to be released until Oct. 31.

Since June, gasoline prices have climbed more or less steadily and are now 35 cents per gallon higher than they were a year ago. According to AAA’s daily fuel gauge report, which measures gas prices around the country, gas prices have hit daily record highs at least once in each of the past six weeks. In Michigan and Ohio, prices rose by 50 cents per gallon in the past year. As of Oct. 1, there were seven states with gas prices above $4 per gallon.

Gasoline prices in California rose to another all-time high on Sunday after passing a four-year high a day earlier, according to AAA....

California’s average gasoline price set a record Saturday of $4.614 for a gallon of regular, up 12.8 cents overnight – but anyone who filled up in the last few days probably isn’t surprised. 

California's average gasoline prices rose 13 cents to $4.26 in the second quarter of 2012, a 3.1 percent increase compared to last year's second quarter average price of $4.13 according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Even as oil prices drop to some of its lowest levels at $88 per barrel.

U.S. gasoline prices at the pump are poised to drop by year end, if history is any guide, as refineries resume production, Europe exports more fuel to the East Coast and Americans drive less. Prices at service stations may fall about 6.3 percent to $3.54 a gallon, according to eight years of seasonal data compiled by Bloomberg. Gasoline deliveries to the U.S. from Europe may rise 35 percent, according to the median of eight estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. Demand has declined an average of 3.6 percent from July through December during the past five years, Energy Department data show.

U.S. consumer spending rose in August as households stretched to pay for higher gasoline prices and factory activity in the Midwest contracted this month for the first time in three years, pointing to lackluster economic growth.

The average U.S. price of a gallon of gasoline dipped by less than one penny - about a third of a cent - over the past two weeks....