Gasoline Prices Rise After Prolonged Lows

Well, it was fun while it lasted. Reporting in on March 2, federal data noted the sharp uptick in gasoline prices, rising 14.1 cents to $2.473.

Gasoline is still $1.006 less than a year ago, but consumers have seen nearly a fifty cent rise in per-gallon pricing since the "bottom" was hit in mid-February. The Lower Atlantic region saw the least amount of increase in the week ending 3/2, where gas rose eight cents to $2.335. Conversely, the average price increased 37.2 cents to $3.13 on the West Coast, where specific blending protocols, the carbon-emission mandate, and an explosion that stopped gasoline production at a Torrance refinery operated by Exxon Mobil Corp. all have taken a toll.

As for state-to-state price variances, a gallon of gasoline costs about 50 percent more in New York than Missouri. Taxes vary by as much as 35 cents a gallon, according to the American Petroleum Institute. Geography plays a role, too. States like Missouri and Oklahoma are near lots of refineries, and those refineries have pipeline access to cheaper crude supplies from the U.S. and Canada. Finally, state and local regulations produce many different varieties of gasoline, with different ethanol blends, octane requirements and emissions standards.

The price rebound was not unexpected. In the current issue of NAFA's FLEETSolutions, incoming NAFA President Ruth Alfson, CAFM^®, said in a late January 2015 interview, "Historically, (gas) prices are not going to stay this low. So while they are, putting into place the parameters and policies to make a fleet more sustainable makes sense. That way, when they do eventually start climbing again, having all this in place alleviates your scrambling when higher prices return. You know gas prices are not going to stay this low in the next 2-to-5 years, so start building the parameters now to get more fuel-efficient vehicles in your fleet."

"You have to think not just for now, but for the future," Alfson said. "(Fleet managers) need to be more proactive. The more we blindly keep going with the status quo, the more we will have to overcome when it becomes too expensive to run on conventional fuels."

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