Gasoline prices decline in most of the U.S.
The road trips of summer are getting cheaper.
Pump prices fell in most of the nation, the Energy Department said Tuesday, even in California where the average gasoline price set a record over the Memorial Day weekend.
The U.S. average price for a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline dropped 4.5 cents to $3.669, according to the Energy Department’s weekly survey of service stations. A year earlier, the average was 12.5 cents higher. The only states posting increases in the latest survey were Washington, up 4.3 cents to $4.299, and Ohio, up three-tenths of a penny to $3.658.
In California, the average declined 2.4 cents to $4.312. That’s up 25.6 cents from a year earlier.
Until about two weeks ago, refinery outages in California were helping push up pump prices in the state even though most of U.S. was seeing prices move lower.
Over the Memorial Day weekend, California drivers paid daily averages of $4.302 to $4.283, the highest ever for this time of year, according to AAA’s daily fuel survey.
In other energy news, oil slipped in New York futures trading because of trader concerns about European economies, but the July contract managed to stay above $90 a barrel.
The U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate grade of crude declined 10 cents to $90.76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, the European benchmark Brent crude fell 75 cents to $106.36.
