As the snow fell this week, so did prices on gasoline. Triple-A-Iowa spokeswoman Gail Weinholzer says it’s welcome news for motorists. Weinholzer says many service stations are starting to show prices around two-dollars a gallon and some are even under two-bucks.
She says it’s a national trend that’s been going on for the past week or so and she expects it’ll continue for perhaps another month. Iowa motorists do tend to drive less during this time of the year, with no big family holidays and the cold weather, but Weinholzer says that’s not why pump prices are falling. She says trading prices on crude oil have been up as high as 70-dollars a barrel in recent months but they’ve fallen to around 60-dollars, bringing gas prices down in turn.
Weinholzer says gasoline is a cheaper buy in Iowa than in most places across the U.S. The national average is about 2-27 a gallon while Iowa’s averaging around 2-20. That’s about where prices were last month, but a year ago, prices were about 40-cents a gallon lower in Iowa. The state’s cheapest gas is in Waterloo at 2-14 a gallon; the most expensive is a tie between Davenport and Cedar Rapids, both at 2-21 a gallon.