Lower holiday gas prices eyed in Florida
TALLAHASSEE - The average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gas in Florida was $3.08 on Tuesday, down a penny from a week earlier, according to the AAA auto club.
The average had jumped to $3.15 on Wednesday, when the forecast track for Hurricane Rafael moved toward Louisiana and oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. The storm eventually sputtered out over open water.
Florida receives most of its fuel from U.S. Gulf Coast refineries, including to Port Everglades.
"Gas prices often freeze as a hurricane enters the gulf and oil production and refining are threatened," AAA spokesman Andrew Gross said in a prepared statement.
The average price nationally Monday also was $3.08 a gallon.
"GasBuddy projects that #gasprices this Thanksgiving and Christmas will be at their lowest seasonal level since 2020, due to oil prices and gasoline demand that has finally nearly fully re-balanced after the shockwaves brought by COVID and Russia's war on Ukraine," Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at the website GasBuddy, tweeted Saturday.
The average price a month ago in Florida was $3.10 a gallon. A year ago, it was $3.19, according to AAA.
The highest gas prices in Florida are $3.28 in Monroe County with Palm Beach County next at $3.24. Elsewhere, Miami-Dade was $3.16 and Broward $3.09.
The state's lowest prices were under $3 in Florida's Panhandle, with the cheapest $2.78 in Bay County.
The highest unleaded price ever statewide was $4.89 on June 13, 2022.
The average diesel prices as $3.44, compared with $3.48 a week ago and the all-time high of $5.73 on June 14, 2022.