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KENTUCKY TODAY

Gas prices in Kentucky, which fell to an 18-month low around Christmas then jumped more than 40 cents per gallon a month later, are continuing to fall according to GasBuddy.com, whose crowd-sourced website and mobile app tracks gas prices across the U.S. and Canada.

The average cost of regular gas in Kentucky was back below $3 per gallon on Monday afternoon, standing at $2.98. That is 6 cents below last Monday, 23 cents less than last month, and 27 cents lower than a year ago.   

The nationwide average is currently $3.33 per gallon, which is down three cents from last week, 15 cents from last month, and 27 cents from a year ago.

“Oil and wholesale gasoline prices fell on worrisome inflation figures showing the Fed likely to ramp up rates to slow inflation,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “The drops are showing up for most across the country, with the exception of the West Coast as the transition to summer blends continues, and in the Great Lakes, where prices cycled last week but have now resumed declining.  For the weeks ahead, tradition tells us to expect prices to move up eventually, but that could be at least be partially offset by inflationary data that continues to be hotter than expected, leading to anxiety that the Fed will boost interest rates and cooling the economy and oil demand considerably.”

With inflation figures running above expectations, according to De Haan, there are renewed concerns about the Federal Reserve continuing to raise interest rates, perhaps even more aggressively, which is poised to choke oil production in the world’s largest consuming nation.

West Texas Intermediate Crude and Brent Crude Oil were both trading about $3 per barrel less than they were last Monday.  Last week’s report from the Energy Information Administration showed another large 7.6 million barrel rise in U.S. oil inventories, both of which would translate to lower prices at the pump.

You can download the free GasBuddy mobile app for your phone at the app stores for both iPhone and Android devices.  The Kentucky price website for regular, mid-grade, premium, and diesel fuel can found at kentuckygasprices.com.