In the United States, where the automobile was invented and the open road is seen as a sign of freedom, gas prices are always on every driver's mind.
Summertime is always the time when that discussion becomes even more important, given school breaks and vacations. The good news this summer is that prices are expected to remain stable, according to a report.
Analysts expected a sharp rise in the price of gasoline, due to military conflicts and social problems in Iraq. However, as a Tech Times article points out, those fears have fizzled out. Iraq and other parts of the Middle East, including many of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries countries, are major petro suppliers in the world. Two OPEC countries, Venezuela and Ecuador, are the lone Latin American suppliers.
Prices are averaging $3.50, compared with $4.00 in many places last year. During the peak summer travel time, gas supplies tend to get shorter and prices tend to get higher. The lower price of gas this summer has been attributed to a lower amount of travel in the U.S., according to one report.
There has been a small spike in prices that ended up breaking a more than 30-day trend of falling prices, according to a report. The increase amounted to a fraction of a penny. Also, July saw a record of crude oil processing at refineries in the U.S., which helped push those prices downward for motorists. They reportedly averaged about 16.5 million barrels per day in production.
The average gas price a year ago was about 11 cents more per gallon. Prices have also been relatively steady because no major disasters like hurricanes or other weather events have impeded production.
AAA expects that fuel prices will remain below last year's prices coming into the month of August. States with the lowest gas prices were mostly in the American South, including North Carolina, at $3.24, Alabama at $3.26, Tennessee at $3.29 and Mississippi, Missouri and Oklahoma at $3.30 per gallon.
The most expensive prices seem to be in the West and outlying U.S. states, including Hawaii at $4.34, Alaska at $4.13, California at $3.98 and Oregon and Washington at $3.92.
