With supplies high and demand ebbing, gas prices drop across region
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The price of gas is dipping. In New Jersey, drivers are filling the tank for less than $3 a gallon. In Pennsylvania, the cost averages $3.31, while motorists in Delaware are paying an average of $3.22.
Several factors account for the decline that has gas retailing for about 50 cents less per gallon than at this time a year ago, according to Patrick DeHaan of the website GasBuddy.com.
Demand is lower in the fall, he said, and that means higher supplies.
“Refineries are operating without any problems this year, and there is a cooling of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East,” DeHann said. “In fact, we could see the lowest gas prices during Christmas that we have seen in three years.”
Prices in the Garden State could ebb to $2.95 a gallon before Christmas, he said.
Prices in Philadelphia are higher, DeHaan said, because Pennsylvania taxes are higher.
“The average amount of combined taxes in New Jersey is 33 cents; in Pennsylvania, it’s 51 cents and that would account for most of the difference,” he said.
Prices could stay below $3 in New Jersey until spring, he said.
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