$1 Gas Price Becomes Less Likely

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 13, 12:01PM EST · Published Mar 13, 9:58AM EDT

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$1 Gas Price Becomes Less Likely — © Thinkstock

Probably due to the surging price of oil, primarily, gas prices will not drop to $1 anytime soon. Briefly, two months ago, the price breached that number on the way down at a few stations.

The price of an average gallon of regular nationwide is $1.93, up from $1.70 a month ago. Over roughly the same period, oil has gone from just above $28 a barrel to just below $40.

The lowest priced gas in the United States is in Arizona, where 49 of the 50 stations nationwide are located. In and around Tucson, the cheapest gas is $1.29 at one station. Nearly 100 stations have prices at or below $1.35.

The drivers in Arizona have several advantages. The state has the second lowest priced in the United States at $1.69 per average gallon of regular, according to GasBuddy. Only New Jersey has cheaper gas. For contrast, the state with highest gas price is California. Ironically, the two states share a border. But the high gas prices in California are not on that border. They are in and around the state’s most populated areas, primarily San Francisco and Los Angeles.
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Among the primary reasons for Arizona’s low gas price is that it has among the lowest gas taxes in the country at $0.374 per gallon. The national average is $0.40, according to the American Petroleum Institute. The California rate is $0.59.

Arizona is also near several refineries in West Texas. The distance gas has to travel has an effect on price.

The prices of gas may never drop to $1, but if it continues to go higher, Arizona will remain a state with among the cheapest.

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.