Thank Bush For Low Gas Prices

The price of gasoline has fallen to its lowest level of the year. The federal Energy Information Administration said Monday that U.S. motorists paid $2.226 a gallon on average for regular grade last week, a decrease of 3.5 cents from the previous week. Pump prices are now 50 cents lower than a year ago and have plummeted by more than 80 cents a gallon since the start of August. The previous 2006 low for gasoline was set in the first week of January, when pump prices averaged $2.238 Gasoline can be found for less than $2 a gallon in many parts of the country. Tom Kloza, an analyst at the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J., said Missouri is on course to become the first state with average prices below that psychological level. But in a sign of how wide prices can vary, the average cost of gasoline in Hawaii is still more than $3 a gallon, Kloza said. Gasoline prices were most expensive last week on the West Coast, averaging $2.51 per gallon, and cheapest in the Gulf Coast region, averaging $2.11 per gallon, according to the EIA. The price of oil is down roughly 25 percent since a summertime peak above $78 a barrel, settling Monday at $59.95. OPEC is planning to meet later this week to discuss cutting output in order to stabilize prices. Average retail gasoline prices peaked at $3.07 a gallon last September, reflecting the extreme tightness in the market following hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which knocked out refineries in the Gulf region as well as pipelines that deliver fuel to the East Coast and Midwest. They remained high all year amid soaring crude-oil prices, tight refining capacity and fears that there would be another extreme hurricane season this summer. But as the outlook for economic growth began to look shaky, supplies grew and hurricane fears never materialized, a massive selloff in gasoline futures began, sending oil futures lower as well.