Kaila Goodrich gets into her economy car after class. Will it be economical to fill up anytime soon? Aaron Fishell/Western Herald
By Aaron Fishell
Staff Reporter
While the price of a gallon of gas may be dropping soon, high fuel prices had an effect on how Western Michigan University students spent their summer.
“I think I probably would have gone and traveled a lot more if [gas prices] would have been cheaper,” said WMU student Kaila Goodrich. “Even going up north it was like 100 bucks just to fill up my gas tank.”
The average price for a gallon of gas in Kalamazoo was $3.97 as of Labor Day, which was up nearly 16 cents from a year ago and 17 cents above the national average, according to Kalamazoogasprices.com.
It looks like some relief at the pump might not be too far off however.
“Gasoline prices historically drop in autumn, bottoming out between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We should see declines beginning in the weeks ahead,” said Patrick DeHaan, Senior Petroleum Analyst for Gasbuddy.com.
One of the reasons that gas prices drop after the summer months has to do with “The EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] mandate that requires ‘summer blend’ (May 1 thru Sept. 30) and ‘winter gasoline blends’ (Oct. 1 thru April 30),” according to Gregg Laskoski, Senior Petroleum Analyst at GasBuddy.com.
”The winter blend is cheaper to produce because it is not required to have the same additives as the summer blend,”Laskoski said
Since it was founded in 2000, millions of people have used the GasBuddy.com app and website to find the cheapest gas in their area in order to save money at the pump.
“Our goal is to save motorists money at the pump by allowing them to make an educated decision on where to buy gasoline,” said Dehaan.
Print 
PDF
Loading ...