PORTLAND – Gasoline prices are falling across Northern New England and nationwide as supplies firm up in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
But with Tropical Storm Rita posing a potential threat to the U.S. Gulf Coast, the drop could be short-lived. Prices for crude-oil futures posted their biggest jump ever – more than $4 a barrel – on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday.
Retail gasoline prices on Monday were based on earlier purchases, however, and the news was good. A gallon of regular unleaded averaged just over $2.78 in Maine, according to the AAA motorist club, which surveys prices at 60,000 gas stations across the country.
That was a 12-cent drop in one day, and was 42 cents a gallon cheaper than the peak average price of $3.20 on Sept. 5. Similar price drops occurred in New Hampshire and Vermont.
Matthew McKenzie, spokesman for AAA Northern New England, said prices fell because the market had shown some signs, albeit temporary, of stability. Prices spiked the first few days in September after Hurricane Katrina damaged oil refineries and a major pipeline that connects the Gulf Coast to the Northeast, and created uncertainty among consumers, he said.
By Monday, several stations in Maine had lowered their prices to below $2.70 a gallon. At an Irving station on Broadway in Bangor, gas was selling for $2.59 a gallon.
That price was a bargain compared to a couple of weeks ago – but it still wasn’t low enough to please everyone.
“Some people are smiling, but some are still complaining that the price is too high,” said Tammy Nielsen, an employee at the station.
In New Hampshire, the average price for a gallon of regular was $2.92 on Monday. That was a dime a gallon less than a day earlier and 22 cents cheaper than the peak, set on Sept. 10.
In Vermont, regular gas was averaging $2.94 a gallon – a decline of 12 cents in one day and 21 cents from the state’s high price eight days earlier.
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