US Gas Prices Drop to 4-Year Low

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Mar 20, 9:15AM EDT

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In 28 states, the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline has fallen below $3.
This helps the pocketbook, especially during times of inflation.

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US Gas Prices Drop to 4-Year Low — © bunyarit / iStock via Getty Images

The nationwide average price for a gallon of regular gasoline has fallen to $3.03 and continues to fall. In 28 states, gas prices are below $3.

The decline helps the pocketbooks, especially during times of inflation. Gas is between 3% and 4% of the average household’s expenses. While the consumer price index continues to tick up, the price of gasoline has been falling, and it was down 3.2% in February.

The primary driver of gas prices is the price of crude oil. It has fallen from $80 a barrel in mid-January to $68, and the trend continues down.

The price of a gallon of gas varies considerably from state to state. It is currently $2.63 (the lowest) in Oklahoma and $4.61 (the highest) in California.

One reason for low gas prices is proximity to refineries. Among the largest of these are on the Gulf of Mexico, south of Houston. Gas prices in the region are among the lowest in the country. In addition to Oklahoma, this includes $2.64 in Mississippi, $2.69 in Tennessee, $2.71 in Louisiana, and $2.72 in Texas.

Another driver of gas prices is state taxes. The figure is $0.8655 per gallon in California, which is the highest of all states. The U.S. average is $0.5709. In Texas ($0.3840) and other southern states, the number is usually low. This includes Mississippi ($0.3719) and Oklahoma ($0.3840)

These are the 10 states with the lowest gas prices:

Oklahoma ($2.626)
Mississippi ($2.640)
Kentucky ($2.681)
Tennessee ($2.682)
Louisiana ($2.711)
Texas ($2.722)
Alabama ($2.7260)
Arkansas ($2.750)
South Carolina ($2.760)
Kansas ($2.793)

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.