Lower gas prices should hold steady for the summer

After more than a month of plummeting, gasoline prices in Gainesville and the rest of the state have retreated from nearly $3 a gallon to below $2.70 a gallon -- welcome news to local drivers looking for a break on rising costs.

But AAA warns that prices could begin to rise again after the summer, and while prices are nowhere near their peak of 2008, they're also a bit higher than a year ago.

According to AAA's daily survey, prices at the pump fell by another penny a gallon between Monday and Tuesday. A year ago at this time, average gas prices in Florida were $2.67 a gallon for regular unleaded, far below the record-setting summer of 2008 when prices hit a peak of more than $4.15 a gallon.

Chris McCarty, survey director of the University of Florida Survey Research Center, said the BP oil drilling disaster in the Gulf of Mexico could affect oil and gas prices locally and nationally. In addition to resulting in the precautionary shutdown of other Gulf drilling platforms, the growing oil spill is slowing distribution.

"This will probably have a regional effect," McCarty said. "Those barges that transport refined (oil) products up the Mississippi River are being forced to move slowly because their hulls have to be cleaned of any oil before they head up the river."

McCarty also predicted the economic laws of supply and demand will take over as the U.S. economic recovery gains traction and that gas prices will begin rising when demand increases as markets become more active.

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Lower gas prices should hold steady for the summer - Gainesville Sun - June 8, 2010