Breaking the $3 barrier -- in the correct direction

Well, there's one nice piece of fallout from the economic shocks afflicting the world lately: Gas prices have once again found their way below the $3 retail level in these parts. Cumberland Farms franchises along Route 9 in Amherst and Hadley, as well as the Philips 66 across from the Cumby in Hadley (the gas station formerly known as Gibbs), were all offering regular unleaded at $2.99 per gallon, plus the ubiquitous 9/10th of a cent. As those prices, you could almost start thinking about taking a summer vacation soon, no?

The recent drop-off in oil prices has been one of the curious occurrences of the economic turmoil. As the shocks in the market started during the summer, investors initially moved money toward commodities like oil, but the amount of economic turmoil and the elevated prices of the past year have each taken a toll on demand for oil. Producers are holding surpluses at the moment, thus the drop in prices. (Conspiracists may also credit an attempt to boost waning fortunes for the Republicans in advance of the elections. Maybe.) This still doesn't promise an easy winter by any means for those dependent on heating oil; OPEC and other producers are certainly likely to take steps to reduce surpluses and regain some control over prices. But for the moment, here in the Valley, this is at least one welcome development in the midst of a ton of economic weirdness. Let's hope it continues for a while.

Down, down, d......well, a little, anyway

This morning, I passed the Route 9 gas stations that (as I noted in a prior entry) I use as my markers for the ongoing movement in gas prices. The Cumberland Farms in Hadley had been holding steady at $3.94* per gallon, while the Gibbs across the road had been at $3.96 for a couple of days. Now, maybe two cents isn't much difference at those prices, but nonetheless I figured the Cumby would match, and driving home last night, I wondered why it hadn't.

Today, though, the unthinkable -- the Gibbs had dropped its price two cents to match at $3.94! I think that's the first reduction of any sort I've seen in a few months. Granted, this all happened this morning; by now, for all I know, they could both be at $4.05 or something. But it was a treat to see some downward motion, however small.

* To be entirely accurate, that should be $3.93 and 9/10, but that's a bit cumbersome, no? However, this little addendum did prompt me to go back before posting this and correct the entry to round it up the extra 1/10 cent, rather than leaving it rounded down at what the oil companies would like us to think the price is. That 9/10 of a penny has been a cheesy scam they've been running for my entire lifetime, it seems -- and a scam that's worth more than $1 billion a year out of our pockets, natch.

$4 gas -- maybe around the corner, but definitely down the road

The Cumberland Farms on Route 9 in Hadley, my own personal bellwether
for the price of gasoline, was holding steady today at $3.87 per gallon
when I drove past it this morning on my way into the Cube. At least that's different than a couple of mornings ago; when I drove past that day, it was at $3.77 per gallon there, $3.75 across the road at the Gibbs. When I returned in the afternoon, the Gibbs had leapfrogged up to $3.79, and I wondered how fast the Cumby would match. Now I only wonder if it ever did; it was the next morning that I saw it had taken the 10-cent(!!!!) leap to $3.87.

Still, this is better than you're going to find just down the road a bit in Connecticut, which was one of the first three states (along with Alaska and New York) to breach the $4/gallon average statewide mark. Not even California beat the Nutmeg State to $4, which is a good indication of how extreme Connecticut's prices are, thanks to an extra state tax on gas there. If you've done any driving throughout New England, you're almost certainly aware that Connecticut is generally about 20 cents more per gallon at any given time than you'll find here in Massachusetts. But if your Memorial Day plans include driving, you'll want to be sure to fill up here, not there.

Of course, this is all nothing compared with Europe. If you're headed to Germany, for example, be prepared to pay $8 per gallon. But would that stop me from renting a high-performance sedan and hitting the Autobahn in the slow lane at 120 mph? No way. (Better to do it there than on I-91 in Vermont, where a New Hampshire man got bagged doing 135 mph on Wednesday. In the rain, no less. I wouldn't want to pay that fine....)