Sacramento-area gas prices continue to fall

Sacramento-area gas prices completed a historically rare warm-weather double, falling over both the Memorial Day and Independence Day holiday weekends.

Area gas prices have been declining steadily since mid-May and edged downward another 0.3 cents over the past week, according to Monday’s report by national gas price tracker GasBuddy.com, which does a daily survey on more than 700 gas outlets in the region.

The average retail price of gasoline in the area Monday was $3.21 gallon. That’s 16.4 cents lower than a month ago and 82 cents less than the year-ago average.

Nationally, the average price fell 0.6 cents in a week’s time to $2.77 a gallon, up 1.2 cents from last month but 88.5 cents per gallon lower than the average cost one year ago.

“From Los Angeles to Chicago to New York, motorists saw a promising trend at the pump this past weekend that continues to edge lower,” said Gregg Laskoski, GasBuddy senior petroleum analyst. “That may run counter to consumer expectations, but this is what we’ve seen in recent years when summer prices showed nominal but gradual decline through June and July.”

Laskoski noted that at-the-pump prices have been pushed downward by sagging crude oil costs; crude closed last week at about $55.50 a barrel, far less than the 2015 high of $62 a barrel.

This story was originally published July 6, 2015 at 11:00 AM with the headline "Sacramento-area gas prices continue to fall."