Gasoline prices hold steady before Labor Day
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
With the summer driving season nearing its traditional Labor Day finish, pump prices in California and across the U.S. have remained mostly stable, the Energy Department said today.
The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in California rose just 0.6 cents to $3.037 in the last week, according to the Energy Department’s weekly survey of gas stations. The average is 86.8 cents lower than a year earlier.
In the last month, the state’s average has remained above $3 a gallon but has varied by less than a penny.
So far this year, California’s average gasoline price has spend just five weeks above the $3 threshold compared with 43 weeks during the same period in 2008, which included 13 weeks at more than $4 a gallon.
Prices in Los Angeles ranged from $2.79 to $3.45, according to GasBuddy.com, a nationwide system of 185 websites on which volunteers report the prices they see.
The national average fell 1.5 cents to $2.613 a gallon, $1.067 lower than a year earlier.
In New York futures trading, oil took a tumble below $70 a barrel today for the first time since Aug. 18. Crude oil for October delivery fell $2.78, or 3.82,% to $69.96 a barrel.
Analysts attributed the decline to a sell-off in China’s stock market, which raised concerns about the strength of the global economic recovery. Still, despite the biggest decline in two weeks, oil remained within its recent range of the upper $60s to the mid-$70s.
-- Ronald D. White
