WASHINGTON – U.S. drivers finally got a break from soaring gasoline prices, which had risen for eight consecutive weeks, as the pump price fell 2.3 cents to $1.658 a gallon, the Energy Department’s statistical agency said June 26. The drop arrives right before the busy Fourth of July holiday travel season.
The retail price decline follows a sudden drop in wholesale gasoline prices after the Federal Trade Commission announced it would investigate whether oil companies are gouging consumers at the pump.
Gasoline is still up 55 cents a gallon from a year ago, based on the Energy Information Administration's (EIA) weekly survey of 800 service stations. The national price for cleaner-burning reformulated gasoline is down 1.8 cents to $1.682 a gallon.
Midwest drivers continued to pay the most for fuel, though prices have fallen dramatically over the last week. Conventional gasoline was down 8 cents to $1.794 a gallon and reformulated gasoline fell 12.2 cents to $1.881.
Midwest wholesale gasoline prices dropped between 25 cents and 40 cents a gallon last week.
Gulf coast states had the cheapest fuel, up 0.9 cents a gallon to $1.528 for conventional gasoline, while reformulated gasoline rose half a penny to $1.519.
Meanwhile, several senators want to give drivers some price relief during the busy summer driving season by eliminating the 18.4-cent federal tax on a gallon of gasoline. Republican Senators Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas said they would introduce legislation to temporarily suspend the gasoline tax for the summer.
However, President Clinton warned that this would mean highway construction projects, which are paid for with the tax revenue, could be scrapped. "Now, if Congress wants to consider some sort of relief on the federal gas tax … they would have to be willing to defer substantial highway projects," Clinton told reporters. "That's something they have to come to terms with."