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If you've spent any time driving your car lately, you may have noticed a big change at the pump. The economy has driven prices down, and more than just a little. The price for natural gas, which most of us use to heat our homes, is down too.
Consider these numbers: Nationally, the price for a gallon of regular unleaded is $2.34. Utah, typically a little higher, stands at $2.53
Compare that with a year ago when gas prices topped $3 a gallon. Even more dramatic: A month ago, prices were quite a bit higher. They've fallen about a dollar since then.
Both national and Utah prices went up strongly earlier this year, then fell dramatically as the global economic crisis hit.
"Usually it takes me $60 or $70 to fill up my car, but yesterday I filled it up for about $45," driver Lendl Aelu said.
Driver Erin Smith said, "I just put $20 in. I can probably get a lot further, not have to fill up as often."
"I think when it was at the highest, it was like $60 to fill up. Now it's like $48. So it's gone down a lot," driver Dani Plothow said. "I think it's a nice surprise."
It's not just gasoline. Natural gas also hit historic high prices last June, and then it dropped.
A Questar rate increase over the summer has been peeled back, and as a result, customers bills will be 6 percent lower than they would have been.
"That increase that occurred during the summer is pretty much taken care of because gas prices have not done what the industry expected, and that's good news for customers, and it means lower costs on our monthly bills," Questar spokesman Darren Shepherd said.
Oil prices neared $60 a barrel today. That's their lowest point in about a year and a half. A growing number of economic reports point to a long and painful recession and slowing demand as what is driving prices down.
E-mail: jdaley@ksl.com
