Nebraskans are finally seeing some relief at the gas pump.
AAA Nebraska reports the statewide average is now at $4.43 a gallon, 6-cents under the national average. In Lincoln, the average price is $4.47 a gallon and in Omaha, $4.40. In June, the state saw the record high at $4.79 a gallon.
AAA’s Brian Ortner tells KLIN News we have come a long way. He says, “If you look at where we were at a month ago, on June 19th, we had our highest level ever for a gallon of gas in the state. This is a great sign as we move into the remainder of summer. It is a great trend. Even if we are at the highest level of our summer travel season that we have seen in some time, people are fueling up less. That is lower the demand level and driving down prices.”
Prices are lower for store memberships like Costco and Sam’s Club. Those prices are under the $4 mark. Ortner says those store fuel savings can continue to pay off.
Ortner says, “If you look at oil, crude prices again today are under $100 a barrel. It was a week ago or 10 days, we hit the under $100 mark for the first time in 8 weeks. Demand at the pump is down and the supply is there because people are not fueling up as much.”
Prices could continue to drop as we wrap up the summer travel season. With the good news, there is something to watch.
Ortner says, “We have to watch out for is we are in the high-middle of hurricane season. If there are refineries out in the ocean that are impacted by by hurricanes and tropical storms because production could be shut down temporarily. Our trend going down is a great thing to see but we have to remember that hurricane season may effect that as well as we move to the second half of the season.”
Diesel prices are also dropping. The average price now is $5.17 compared to the record high of $5.35 a month ago.