Auto Club: A Month Of Gas Price Declines

(LOS ANGELES, June 16, 2006) — One month after setting new all-time records, regional gas prices have continued declining by less than a penny a day on average for the past week, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California’s Weekend Gas Watch. Prices are still 75 cents higher on average than they were at the beginning of this latest price spike in March, and 90 to 95 cents higher than they were at this time last year.

The average price of self-serve regular gasoline in the Los Angeles–Long Beach area is $3.267, which is 4.8 cents lower than last week, 13 cents lower than last month and 92 cents higher than last year. In San Diego, the price is $3.276, 4.6 cents below last week’s price, 16 cents below last month and 91 cents above last year. On the Central Coast, the average price is $3.423, down 3.5 cents from last week, seven cents below last month and 94 cents higher than last year. In the Inland Empire, the average price is $3.293, down 4.5 cents from last week, 15 cents below last month and 95 cents higher than last year.

“When adjusted for inflation, California’s previous record gas prices were paid in 1981 at the height of the energy and Iran hostage crisis,” said Auto Club spokesperson Carol Thorp. “For most of this year, Southern Californians have been paying more than that inflation-adjusted annual average 1981 price of $2.50 a gallon, and for the last two months local prices have been higher than the 1981 inflation-adjusted peak price of $3.08.”

The Weekend Gas Watch monitors the average price of gasoline as of 12:01 a.m., June 16:

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