The Price of Gas in Mississippi Is $2.70 and Falling

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Sep 12, 9:15AM EDT

Quick Read

Despite inflation, the average price of gasoline in the U.S. decreased in August.
Fuel prices are particularly low in Mississippi and other southern states.

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

The Price of Gas in Mississippi Is $2.70 and Falling — © Mike Flippo / Shutterstock.com

In August, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 2.9% year over year. That is about what was expected. However, the price of gasoline fell 6.6%, based on the same timetable. The CPI can be misleading. Car maintenance prices rose 8.5%. Based on the CPI components, inflation is all over the place.

Gas prices are falling because oil prices also are. Oil prices account for about two-thirds of the price of gas. Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude is at $62 a barrel. It was at $80 last January, and in mid-2022, it rose above $100. The average price of a gallon of regular nationwide was $5 then.

In Mississippi, the average price of a gallon of regular is now $2.70. The national figure is $3.19. Gas prices lag oil prices because of refineries and transportation. Some forecasts put oil below $50 a barrel because of oversupply, which will grow soon largely because of an increase in OPEC+ production. The price of gas will decrease.

Mississippi could be considered an aberration, but it is not. GasBuddy reports that gas costs below $2.80 in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. Even in a big northern state like Ohio, it is $2.90.

In some cases, gas will probably never go below $3 a gallon. California is a case in point. The gas tax is too high there. But California has only 12% of the U.S. population. What about everywhere else?

Many CPI components may continue to see price increases in the coming months. Yet, the total monthly CPI increases won’t be because of gas prices.

1 in 5 Americans Are Stockpiling Due to Inflation Concerns. Should You?

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.