Gas Prices Down 40% YTD

Here is an immediate tax break and "stimulus package" for consumers

Gas prices lost nearly 3 cents to sell near $2.45 a gallon on average, according to a nationwide survey of filling station credit card swipes. The average price of regular unleaded gasoline dropped 2.7 cents to $2.436 a gallon from $2.463 a day before, according to the survey released by motorist group AAA.

Gas last sold in the $2.50 range in mid-March 2007. The average price dropped below $3 a gallon on Sat., Oct. 18, for the first time in nearly nine months. Gas prices have fallen for 46 straight days, shedding $1.41 since hurricanes battered the Gulf coast in September. Unleaded is now down $1.67 or over 40% from a record high of $4.114 a gallon in mid-July, down in part due to the 50% drop in crude oil from its peak near $150 a barrel in mid July to its current trading price of around $63 a barrel. The price of crude oil makes up about 70% of a gallon of gas.

The price of E85 ethanol, an 85% ethanol blend that can be used as a gasoline alternative in specially equipped "flex-fuel" vehicles and produced by Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Pacific Ethanol (PEIX) and The Andersons (ANDE), declined to a nationwide average of $2.274 a gallon from $2.284 the day before, according to the AAA survey.

What is odd is that despite record profits from Exxon (XOM), BP (BP) and Chervron (CVX), now that gas prices have fallen, neither consumers nor politicians seem to care how much money the oil majors make. It is only when gas prices at the pump are high does it seem to matter.