Paying $2.43 here in upstate NY

You normally see this at truck stops in Atlanta. Smaller volume stations don't seem to do this as often. Also, I've seen it moreso on diesel prices rather than gas in Georgia.

Credit card swipes are down because you don't have to fill up as often with cheaper gas.
Or would that be too easy an explanation?

Yay! Gas is cheap and it will stay that way forever! Screw energy conservation, Imo buy me a Hummah!

But I keed, I keed. Hope you have a good -- and affordable -- trip!

@GiannaKaploodle: Zero chance. Those companies ate losses for several months when fuel costs skyrocketed because they couldn't just jump their prices to match. They slowly raised them, and usually with about a 3 month delay. The agency I work for just now increased the cost of power as a result of fuel transportation costs we were hit with last year. Of course, our price WILL come back down when we've recouped since our industry is properly regulated.

Invest in diesel cars, folks.

Wall street is in the crapper, the car companies are in the crapper, our economy is headed into the crapper but at least gas is cheaper! I say Yay!

@karmaghost: North west Ohio does have the other half of Marathon's corpoarte headquarters, and they have a huge refinary in Detroit. Plus a terminal in lima and Toledo. Those things help quite a bit.

I'm going to Portland Oregon from Chicago. The cost for the cheapest tickets went up almost $100 eeek but it can't be anywhere near as much as your going to pay. Have fun in Madrid! I've always wanted to travel the world but my only problem is I don't speak any foreign languages so I'd be stuck to the few countries that speak English lol.

Now the dollar is slowly slowly getting a bit stronger, and the speculators burst their oil bubble, so everything is normalizing.

The price of gas has *never* been based on summer / winter or demand. Its "how much will they pay before they stop buying" and they hit that point and went too far and its tanking now because of it.

On top of that, just because prices are going down now, doesn't mean they won't go up. I kind of agree with the notion that once prices come up to a certain point, even if they drop, they'll come back to that high point again.

@danno50: Based on what?

I bought a 2004 Civic Hybrid back when Toyota closed the wait-list for the Prius in 2004. For the last four years, I've been averaging 48.8 mpg. And the higher gas prices are expected to come back sooner than you probably realize. While a global recession is great for alleviating demand problems, we've still got a looming supply problem people are ignoring, and that's a problem that is only slightly ameliorated by shrinking demand. That, and OPEC wants to cut back production to stabilize the cost of a barrel of crude.

There are VERY bad times coming, folks.

God bless all those Pickup Trucks and SUV's that had those
"Drill Here, Drill NOW!" stickers. They knew that offshore drilling would be the only way to lower gasoline prices! I'm just surprised that--

--What? We haven't started drilling yet? Oh... Then why is gas down? Supply and Demand?

How come nobody mentioned THAT--on a bumper sticker?

@DeltaTee: @DeltaTee: Oh, where to begin. How about with 'It's the same reason prices went up to begin with' No, it is not. Well sort of it is, but not in the way you mean. Prices went up because of speculation. Demand (in the US) went down because prices went up. Elswhere demand pretty much stayed the same (or went up). In mid July President Bush signed an executive order lifting the ban on off shore US drilling. All that remained was for congress to let its ban expire without renewal. Speculators saw this move and, reading the writing on the wall, stopped pushing the price up artificially and let it settle to where it should have been all along. The Crash of the credit markets has only continued the fall of crude prices which is why they are still continuing to fall. Opec said last spring that supply and demand should have resulted in prices between $60 and $70 a barrel for crude but that speculators were responsible and they saw no need to increase supply to stem the price climb.

As for the outsize profits of the oil companies. Yes the oil companies reported record profits. What the press does not report so well, is that it was in terms of pure dollars, not percent of business. The oil companies did record business. The profit margin was just less than 10%. Any less, and stockholders would start to be concerned and move their capital investment money somewhere else. You want to talk about outsized profits? Look to the credit industry where profit margins are in the 30% or more range. The fact that they are even asking for a bail out is insane. They mismanaged themselves into this mess. The responsible (to their shareholders) oil companies should not be penalized to pay for the credit companies mistakes. But that is the plan from Pelosi and Obama.

@Trai_Dep: The last time I demanded a particular wage, I ended up paying no taxes because I didn't make any more money!

@buckfutt: Bush lifted the ban on offshore drilling. Waiting for congress to do the same. Speculators realized the party was over.

I meant to say a fully-grown family of five (meaning not just babies) and that WE'VE gone around. So much for my editing job. ;)

I agree that it is worth it. Many Prius owners I know (including my wife) bought it not just to save money on gas, but because they wanted a car that runs cleaner for the environment. And Toyota is a dependable brand-- I had a 1989 pickup that just wouldn't die, haha! The Prius might not fit a full family of five inside, but a family of four? Sure! We're gone around with two large dogs in the backseat, for what it's worth, and it's always been comfortable. :)

Yeah! I paid $1.63/gallon today.

Our local grocery store in PA, Acme, gives coupons you can apply toward gas purchases at Exxon. You can combine coupons and save up to $0.70/gallon and fill up to 15 gallons. (OK. So, I paid $2.23/gallon minus a discount of $0.60. It was still exciting.) I have a few coupons left that won't expire until at least 2 more fill-ups. By the time I need gas again, I'm sure I'll get closer to $1.30/gallon.

I moved down to North Carolina, and expected a nice drop in gas prices, but they are really just about the same as up there. Pumps around here are at $2.40 or so.

$2.28 here in Charlotte, NC

@Meltdown:

My point is that the markets (more speculation than actual demand, as we see how much demand has dropped) raised the price of oil, which means more money going to the oil producers in the middle east.

So now, our economy is drained (Not putting all the blame on this, but it was the "straw that broke the camel's back," pun intended)

Which means - magic - no one has to pay taxes and societies flourish!

Oh I feel great now, I can fill up my F-150 for only $50. I use about 20 gallons a week.

But even when it approached $4.00/gallon, you know, it really wasn't that bad. Since I own it outright and have no car payments, I just paid it and moved on.

Would I buy another fullsize pickup when this one is old (which will be awhile, it's a 2004)? Probably, unless gas hits about $8.00.

@DeltaTee: Everybody knows that companies don't pay taxes -- they just pass them on to the end user.

Which means, tax them more, and YOU pay more for gas.

The gas prices here in sunny Stevens Point, WI are down to @2.199 /gal to $2.229 /gal, which is the lowest level I can remember since January 07, when the prices in my area were right around $1.999 / gal. Much, much needed relief, and the extra savings can go towards the big Plasma TV I want to buy.

dont worry, opec will cut production again and prices will go back up.

Ok, seriously, in Europe, gas prices have been much, much higher for ages... Same thing in Canada. This is more production vs demand thing. Oh yeah! That's capitalism at work.

Felt good to fill up from an empty tank for less than $20. :)

Enjoy it while it lasts. It will flip around soon enough.

@danno50: I'm not sure buying a fuel efficent vehicle is a bad thing. Its better for the enviroment, and still cheaper for gas. Toyotas are decent cars (in my life at least) and if you needed a new car, its not a horriable choice.

it's a little more than just supply and demand.

Homework for the reader: what happened on July 14 that popped the price bubble?

but this goes to show why we should not freak out over "economic speculation." over the summer when I was playing $4.5+/gal, all the news outlets around me were saying 'GAS IS GOING TO BE OVER $5 BY THE END OF THE SUMMER' granted, places closer to NYC and places in cali did get over 5 a gallon, it didn't happen at the scale those speculators were projecting.

things fluctuate. it happens. but thankfully, it dropped a lot really fast.

There was a line out the door.

However, as the Mrs-to-be remarked this morning, there seem to be a lot more SUVs with temporary tags on the roads now, meaning people are buying them up at low low prices. Some people apparently never learn.

So while I imagine their was lower demand, a big part of it was high credit card transaction fees and incentives for consumers to use cash.

Good point, didn't even think about that aspect!

Paying $1.83 in parts of NE ohio

But, with the high prices close to $5 per gallon this summer, that was like a huge international funnel, siphoning the remaining money from our economy, to the middle East.. Now we're broke, they have all our money, and gas prices return to where they were before.... Interesting timing, if you ask me...

Felt pretty good seeing $1.94 at the pump this morning.

I think you mean "meat" snack.