Gas prices appear to be dropping

Gas prices are coming down around the state, even though the Department of Natural Resources monthly fuel-price survey says otherwise. D-N-R energy analyst Jennifer Moehlmann says it’s because of 20-cent jump in prices around Labor Day. Prices started declining after Labor Day, so the range is a dollar-46-cents to a-dollar-76-cents across the state, an average dollar-59 a gallon depending on where you are and how fast prices are coming down. Part of that depends on when station managers bought the supply of wholesale fuel that now fills their tanks. When they’ve bought expensive gas, it takes a while to sell it off, especially in small stations. But prices are likely to come down slowly for some time, and Hurricane Isabel isn’t headed for any big refineries in the Northeast that would have to quit producing fuel. If there are more, or if this was hitting the Gulf Coast, it could lead to another spike like storms last October sparked a 10-cent increase in gas prices. In the next few weeks she thinks we’ll see dollar-forties, even a dollar-30 or a dollar- 20 within a few months.