Gas prices down, may fall more, and drivers starting to notice

CHEYENNE — Gasoline prices are falling nationwide, prices at gas stations across the state draw closer to the U.S. average and experts say prices in many places may decline further still.

Frequent drivers also are starting to notice, according to two driving professionals with whom the Wyoming Tribune Eagle spoke by phone Saturday. They, too, were hopeful that what they pay for a gallon of gas locally will continue to fall.

Among reasons for the nationwide trend is wholesale prices for oil are falling. At the same time, motorists seem to be changing their driving habits, experts at the AAA auto association and elsewhere point out.

In Wyoming, prices are sliding so much they are on track, if the pace continues, to soon be at parity with the national average – or perhaps to even fall below it. That would conform with expectations of experts the WTE spoke with a few weeks ago. At that time, the national average retail price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas was 27 cents higher than in Wyoming.

As of Saturday, the difference was only 9 cents, with motorists elsewhere in the country on the whole still paying less, according to the GasBuddy price reporting service. In Cheyenne, the gap was just 5 cents, with prices locally averaging $3.98.

“Gas prices are dropping at varying speeds across the states,” wrote GasBuddy spokesperson Nicole Petersen in a Friday email to the WTE. “We’re estimating the national average will continue to drop over the next five to ten days, and most states will continue to drop as well.”

As experts and motorists have observed in recent days, gas here and many other cities is now below the $4 a gallon threshold.

However, across Wyoming as a whole, it still is running just a tad above that at $4.02 for a gallon. In Casper, GasBuddy reports a gallon goes for just $3.39 on average.

For the driving pros whose jobs are to both transport people and run their own small taxi businesses, relief via the price readouts at the gas pump is welcome. They hope for even further declines.

Donna Marihart owns All in One Shuttle LLC. She said that in the previous six years, she never had to raise her regular rates for local trips.

In the past year, she did boost what she charges by about 50% — to about $15. That’s for a one-way, one-stop trip in the central area of town less than about five miles.

“It’s nice it is coming down,” Marihart said of gas costs. “It does help. And I hope it comes down a lot more.”

She described herself as having “made it through” the previous period of significantly elevated prices. “They are still high, of course,” she said of gas prices.

Locally, gas in Cheyenne hit a record of $4.70 a gallon on June 26.

Savings will add up.

GasBuddy estimates $400 million is being “saved collectively by Americans per day,” compared with where prices were just one month ago, the spokesperson wrote in her email Friday.

Her colleague, head of petroleum analysis Patrick De Haan, had a note of caution.

As he pointed out this past week, “while the recent drop in gas prices has been most welcomed, the issues that led to skyrocketing prices aren’t completely put to bed, and still could lead prices to eventually climb back up, should something unexpected develop.”

During this “record-breaking year at the pump,” most motorists saw price thresholds of $3, $4 and $5 broken, De Haan wrote. “Beginning in March, gas prices in the U.S. rose above $4 per gallon for the first time since 2008, as Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. Global supply began to tighten, with demand also rising into the summer.”

The previous record of $4.10 was “broken in April,” the analyst continued. “Gas prices soared to a new all-time high average of $5.03 per gallon in June.”

Like many drivers, Marihart shops around for the lowest prices. In Wyoming, showing that prices here used to be less than some national averages, the record was $4.90, reached July 1, AAA reports.

Marihart is a member of Sam’s Club, so she sometimes goes there for gas.

“I just find the cheapest in town, usually, and get my gas there,” she said. “But when the prices were getting up to $5, the prices weren’t much less than anybody else,” at whatever gas station she patronized.

On Saturday at Sam’s Club in Cheyenne, according to its website, the cost was $3.69. Safeway, another place where Marihart said she sometimes puts gas in her tank, listed a price of $3.98. That’s before applying any frequent-shopper points, which could reduce the cost.

A co-owner of Capitol City Shuttle, a new cab service in Cheyenne, estimated he and his co-owner and wife use 100 or more gallons of gas a month for their two vehicles. That meant an increase of several hundred dollars when gas was even more expensive, he estimated.

Jeff, who asked that his last name not be used because of concerns about local and national competition, said the company never had to raise fares to offset higher prices. Instead, it relied on what he called “the honor system with our clients.”

“Many of the people perceived that the costs are higher, and people were paying us a little bit more, maybe another dollar or two, so to speak, in a tip,” the driver said. Thanks to this generosity, “we never got to the point where we were losing money.”