Sticker shock at the pump

January 21, 2015 12:04 PM
Sub $2 gas

Celebrate, drivers. The U.S. average price of gasoline will likely fall below $2 per gallon this week for the first time in nearly six years, according to the outlook of GasBuddy.com.

“Right now, there are more stations reporting prices under $2.00 than there are reporting prices above $2.25,” said Gregg Laskoski, a senior petroleum analyst with GasBuddy.

The current average is now $1.24 lower than the average price Americans paid a year ago—and the savings are massive. Crude’s spiral is projected to save drivers $750 on average this year, notes the release from GasBuddy.

Motorists all over the nation could expect to see prices as low as $1.95 in the weeks ahead, according to Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst with GasBuddy, residents in Michigan have the most to celebrate. They’re paying on average $1.36 lower than what they paid a year ago today.

“The current trend maintains the consistent rate of decline we’re monitored for the past several months,” DeHaan said in a GasBuddy release. “When you couple that with the fuel fundamentals reported by the Energy Information Administration, it’s a certainty we’ll see the national average price of gas move below $2, probably within the next 48 to 72 hours.”

Unfortunately, GasBuddy doesn’t expect the average price of gasoline to remain below $2 for very long. Its Fuel Price Outlook for 2015 it pegs the average annual price for the year at $2.642, with prices peaking above $3 in May and June based on seasonal tendencies.

Click through for GasBuddy’s 2015 quarterly price projections. 

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About the Author

Jaime Toplin is the editorial and web intern at Futures Magazine. She also contributes content to Hard Assets and the Alpha Pages. Jaime is a senior at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, studying magazine and online journalism as well as legal studies. She is the VP of Public Relations for her student government and works for a Medill professor who researches digital media.