Forest Lake gas station, Americans for Prosperity partner to briefly slash pump prices
FOREST LAKE, Minn. -- For 90 minutes Sunday, a Forest Lake gas station dropped its prices more than $2 per gallon.
Lines of cars waited at the MotoMart to fill up their tanks for $2.38 a gallon. That was the average gas price in the U.S. in January of 2021.
Donnet Krueger from White Bear Lake said she saved $40 off her usual gas expense.
The station partnered on the promotion with Americans for Prosperity, an activist group that paid to cover the difference for MotoMart.
"We're just here to highlight the problems that everyday Americans are facing," said Jacob Coleman, the state director for Americans for Prosperity - Minnesota. "Bring these stories to the people that are in charge and let them know that things need to change."
Coleman says 150 drivers took advantage of the promotion, some of whom shared how increased gas prices have impacted their budgets.
Ken Girling, a retiree from Forest Lake, said he's watching his spending much more closely.
"We don't go places," Krueger said. "We don't use the truck because it's so expensive. I hate it."
The average price of gas in Minnesota is now $4.49, which is 25 cents lower than last month.
Professor David Vang with the University of St. Thomas's Department of Finance says part of the reason for the drop is that a sluggish economy has slowed demand. But he says prices are likely to remain on the high side as the market factors in policies meant to reduce the supply of gasoline.
"Signal to the oil markets and so forth that yes, we actually want more production and want more gasoline, we want more refineries," Vang said. "Those kind of things would start having a reduction effect on gas prices right now."
When it comes to inflation in general, Vang sees the Federal Reserve taking some real steps to fight it.
His self-described "pessimistic" prediction is that it will take three to four years to get inflation back down to 2 percent.