the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood Nj, after bottoming out in February gas prices have continued to raise with the arrival of spring. The average price of regular gasoline per gallon in the Bergen-Passaic market rose 2 cents Friday to $1.81, according to data from the daily fuel gauge report by the American Automobile Association or AAA. The data also showed the average has surged in recent weeks: one week ago the average was $1.73, and a month prior it was $1.58.
Prices historically start to rise in the springtime, when the refining industry transitions from winter heating oil to summer gasoline and just ahead of the traditional summer driving season.
Tom Kloza, co-founder of Oil Price Information Service in Wall Township, said in a tweet on Thursday that the average price of gasoline in the United States rose above $2 per gallon for the first time since Dec. 31. He also predicted that the average would continue to creep higher in the next five months.
In New Jersey gas is still a bargain . By Friday, the national average for regular gasoline was $2.03, compared with New Jersey’s average of $1.81. Though the state average is significantly lower than the national rate, gas prices at both levels appear to rise and fall at a parallel rate. Both averages bottomed out in February – the national average at slightly below $1.73, and the state average near $1.63 – and have been steadily rising since.
Though the Bergen-Passaic average for regular gasoline was $1.81 on Friday, retail pumps offered gas at a wide range of prices.
According to GasBuddy.com, an online source for gasoline data, the lowest reported price in the Bergen-Passaic market on Friday was at a Power Fuel station in Woodland Park that sold regular gasoline for $1.57 a gallon. On the higher end, a Lukoil station in Wyckoff sold gas for $2.59, the highest in the state, according to GasBuddy.com.
Though gas prices are on the rise, AAA data showed that prices Friday were still significantly lower from one year ago, when the regular price of gasoline in the Bergen-Passaic market averaged $2.19. Last year’s average is still well below the highest recorded average of $4 a gallon on July 6, 2008.
