Gas Prices in Some States Surge Toward $3

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 12, 6:10AM EST · Published Nov 20, 7:31AM EST

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Gas Prices in Some States Surge Toward $3 — © Thinkstock

Gas prices usually move in tandem with the price of oil. True to form, as crude has jumped from below $50 a barrel in early October to over $57, the price of gas has risen, too. It is now at or near an average of $3 for a gallon of regular in several states.

Nationwide, the average price for a gallon of gas is $2.52. That is up from $2.45 a month ago and $2.14 a year ago. Gas prices fell close to $2 in several states in mid summer. Now, the cheapest gas is in Alabama, which is always among states with the lowest prices, at $2.24. The price is just above that in several states on the Gulf of Mexico and near huge refineries south of Houston. The price is $2.25 in Mississippi and $2.27 in Texas.

At the far end of the spectrum, the average price for a gallon of regular in Alaska is $3.21. In California, the largest state by population, it is $3.20. In Hawaii it is $3.16. In Washington the price is $3.00, and in Oregon it is $2.84. In Pennsylvania, the sixth largest state by population, it is $2.77.

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California’s prices are worse than they seem at first glance because, in its largest cities, prices are among the highest in the nation. Gas is $3.30 in San Francisco and $3.25 in Los Angeles.

In some of the states with the highest gas prices, oil prices are not the only culprit. Several, like Hawaii, do not have substantial refinery capacities of their own. Gas taxes and levies have a bigger effect. The gas tax in Hawaii is the third highest in the U.S. California ranks sixth. Pennsylvania has the highest gas tax of any state.

Most states with low gas taxes also have low gas prices. Mississippi has the fifth lowest gas tax among all states. Texas is eighth.

If oil prices continue to rise, the number of states with gas prices above $3 will rise as well. It has been over two years since prices were at that level and if many industry analysts are right, gas prices will remain at the $3 level, or higher.

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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.