America reached a dubious record this week for having gasoline prices of at least $3 a gallon for 1,000 straight days. Gail Weinholzer, spokeswoman for Triple-A-Iowa, says unless we fall into a recession again, we’ll likely have prices that high for another 1,000 days — or more.
Weinholzer says, “The record for a thousand consecutive days over $3 was set nationally a couple of days ago, Tuesday to be exact, but it will not be set until next week in Iowa, because Iowa hit the $3 level one week later than the nation did.” The last time Iowa had gas prices averaging under $3 a gallon was December 28th of 2010.
Weinholzer says it’s possible we may not see pump prices that low again. “Certainly not within the next couple of years,” Weinholzer says. “There’s no reason to anticipate that, even though in some areas, production is increasing when you look like things like fracking.”
Earlier this year, Iowa spent five days with the average price above $4 a gallon — in late May. Even with the rising popularity of ethanol, the growth in the use of electric and hybrid cars, and efforts to produce oil domestically, Weinholzer says key developing nations are just starting to use gas-powered vehicle technology.
“You have to keep in mind that probably tens of thousands of people in China and India are buying their very first automobiles every month as we go forward,” Weinholzer says. “As a result, even though there is an increase in some areas of crude oil development, there is a more significant increase in demand.” Iowa’s current average price for gasoline is $3.52 a gallon, three-cents higher than the national average.