Gas Prices Continue to Rise as American

Motorists Drive Less and Less

AAA predicts American consumers will see an average pump price of

$2 per gallon in the not too distant future

Helena, Mont. 2/17/09 – The national average price of self serve regular gasoline is moving closer toward $2 per gallon with each passing day. Today’s national price of $1.96 per gallon is 12 cents higher than one month ago. Montana motorists on average are paying $1.89 per gallon for self serve regular gasoline at the pump. This is an increase of 11 cents from a week ago and 40 cents higher than one month ago.

With the economy continuing to sputter along and fuel prices rising, AAA does not see any convincing evidence that gasoline demand will recover anytime soon. Once the price of gasoline moves past the $2 per gallon level, there will be even less of a reason to expect a healthy rebound in the number of miles driven by Americans this spring.

“The current economic climate continues to present some real challenges for American families,” says Denice Harris, AAA Spokeswoman. “The economic stimulus bill should help stabilize the market prices for a variety of assets, including oil and gasoline futures and perhaps set a base for a gradual economic recovery.”

The latest rise in fuel prices can be attributed to gasoline refiners’ cutting back their output of gasoline either by design or due to maintenance issues.  Bloomberg News reported Monday that OPEC continues to move toward full implementation of the production cuts it announced last year. This represents about 80 percent of the agreed upon cuts, Bloomberg said.

February typically provides consumers with some price relief as the industry on the west coast begins to deplete its inventory of winter fuels and starts preparing for warm weather blends. So far that relief has not been forthcoming, so it remains to be seen if it will make a belated appearance this year.

AAA MountainWest Club is dedicated to providing its over 160,000 members in Alaska, Montana and Wyoming with travel, insurance, financial and auto-related services.  A fully taxpaying, not-for-profit corporation, AAA MountainWest, Inc. works for the improvement of motoring and traveling conditions and is a leader for travel, civic and safety issues. AAA can be visited on the Internet at www.AAA.com.  To have up-to-date news and safety information from AAA delivered right to your desktop, sign-up for the new RSS Feed at http://aca.aaa.com/exts/email/?club=066#rss

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