Get out your calculators or, better yet, your gasoline yoyos. Kaua’i’s gas prices dropped an average of 43 cents a gallon across the board last week from the previous week’s highest-ever prices, based on a survey of 18 of 20
Get out your calculators or, better yet, your gasoline yoyos.
Kaua’i’s gas prices dropped an average of 43 cents a gallon across the board last week from the previous week’s highest-ever prices, based on a survey of 18 of 20 Kaua’i service stations, conducted by Martin Rice.
Kaua’i gas prices dropped 13 percent.
The price of a gallon of regular gasoline fell almost 50 cents last week from the previous week.
Rice surveys gasoline prices every Thursday.
“The average cost of regular this week is $3.33, for premium it’s $3.53 and for diesel it’s $3.40,” Rice reported.
Using the Lundberg method of price-averaging for national-comparison purposes, Kaua’i’s across-the-board gas prices were $3.43 last week.
The Lundberg method is used to compute an average of all combined grades of gasoline, and is the standard for national reporting, according to Rice.
Rice said the survey did not include the Shell and 76 stations in Waimea, or the price of diesel at the Princeville Chevron.
Here were the best prices for gas on the Garden Island as of Friday morning, according to the Rice Report:
• Regular:
$3.309 at the Hanapepe Shell station and the Kalaheo 76; $3.319 at Aloha Fuels in Kapahi and the Shell stations in Puhi, Hanama’ulu and Wailua.
• Premium:
$3.509 at the Hanapepe Shell and Kalaheo 76; $3.519 at Aloha Fuels in Kapahi and the Shells in Puhi, Hanama’ulu and Wailua.
• Diesel:
$3.309 Kalaheo 76 and $3.369 at Aloha Fuels, Kapahi
“The average price of gas is still way above where it should be considering that our oil comes from the Pacific Rim and not the hurricane-ravaged Gulf of Mexico,” said Rice.
The state average for a gallon of unleaded gasoline as of Friday, Sept. 23, was $3.373, the highest in the nation, and 40 cents higher than the next-most-expensive location, the District of Columbia, according to the AAA (American Automobile Association) Daily Fuel Gauge Report.
The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline was $2.75, up 89 cents from the same time last year, according to AAA reports.
Members of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) lowered the pre-tax cap price on wholesale gasoline for the week beginning tomorrow, Monday, Sept. 26, to Sunday, Oct. 2, by six cents.
Rice agreed with industry experts that the PUC members could very well start increasing rates again because of the effects of Hurricane Rita following in the footsteps of Hurricane Katrina.
The weekly cap established by PUC members sets the maximum amount officials at the oil companies can charge for wholesale gasoline.
The baseline price established by members of the state Legislature under the whole-sale-price-cap law and used by PUC members is the weekly average of the daily spot prices for wholesale gas in Los Angeles, the U.S. Gulf Coast, and New York.
That price excludes taxes and dealer profit margins.
Rice, chairman of the Kaua’i Democratic Party, is on record supporting the spirit of the state’s gas-cap law.
Rice has placed responsibility for volatile gasoline prices on operators of the two oil refineries on O’ahu.
