Gas Price Averages In WI Lower Than A Year Ago

WISCONSIN — Motorists in metro Milwaukee are seeing some relief at the pumps as gas prices fall to a statewide average of about $2.92 per gallon of regular, about ten cents lower than the same time last year. Meanwhile, more premium grades have fallen from an increase last month.

Nationally, the average price for a gallon of regular gas Friday was $3.32, according to the AAA auto club, which tracks gas price changes and provides daily updates. In Waukesha County the average price for a gallon of regular Friday was $2.81, according to AAA. In Milwaukee, it was $2.93.

Prices for other fuels remain higher than they were a year ago. Diesel fuel, especially, is painfully expensive, averaging $5 on average, compared with $3.11 a gallon this time last year. Wisconsin is likewise feeling the grind, paying nearly a dollar more than this time last year for diesel.
Last year around this time diesel cost $3.39, while it now stands at $4.39 as of Friday.

The Biden administration has been drawing down the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve since spring as part of its strategy to lower gas prices, which were already straining Americans’ budgets when they were driven up further by Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Americans are paying about a buck and a quarter less than they were in June, when the average price for a gallon of gas nationally was about $5.

The price at the pump reflects decreased demand, which drove oil prices lower.

Prices for E85 — an 85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline blend used in flexible fuel vehicles — are down even more, to an average of $2.73 a gallon, compared to $3.11 a year ago.

Prices for mid-grade are down in Wisconsin after increasing to over $4 a month ago, with it now standing at $3.33 per gallon, according to AAA. Premium-grade gasoline is standing at $3.79 per gallon, about the same to was a year ago after an increase to over $4 last month.

Gas prices are still higher than they have been in the past several years. President Joe Biden has criticized energy companies such as Exxon, Mobil and Chevron for record-breaking quarterly profits. Global oil and gas producers’ net income is expected to double this year to an “unprecedented” $4 trillion, according to an International Energy Agency report.

In October, just days before the midterm elections, Biden called on Congress to levy tax penalties against oil companies if they don’t invest some of their profits in lowering prices at the pump.

“It’s time for these companies to stop war profiteering, meet their responsibilities in this country and give the American people a break and still do very well,” he said.

The falling prices give Americans a little more flexibility to fight inflation, but doesn’t necessarily provide much breathing room for the Federal Reserve to hold off on interest rate hikes to tame inflation.

“It’s good for households, and it’s good for affordability,” Beth Ann Bovino, the U.S. chief economist at the financial analysis firm S&P Global, told The New York Times. “But at the same time the easing up of pricing pressure at the gas pump leaves more money to spend elsewhere, that might give a near-term boost to inflation, which the Fed would have to fight.”