Gas prices dropping across state, nationwide

On Oct. 24, AAA Hoosier Motor Club reported Indiana gas prices dropped nearly 20 cents from Oct. 17-24.

This news comes in wake of a national reduction in gas prices that brought down the national average gas prices by an average of 13 cents. According to the report, the only two states that had an increase in average gas prices rather than a decrease were Alaska and Utah.

Greg Seiter, public affairs manager for the Hoosier Motor Club, said gas prices could fluxuate in coming months.

“If all the variables remain the same and there are no unexpected uprisings in the Middle East, I think there’s still room for a little bit of a fallback between now and Thanksgiving,” Seiter said. “Once we get to the holiday season, I would expect that gas prices will stabilize.”

However, Seiter said market unpredictability makes accurate projections difficult.
“The market is so volatile and there are so many things that can have an adverse effect,” he said.

Another factor that contributed to the price drop is the rerouting of several pipelines in the Midwest, Seiter said. In the past month, pipeline issues arose, necessitating the rerouting of petroleum to the Midwest. This caused an observed spike in gas prices.

Freshman Eliot Grubb said he does not generally pay attention to gas prices, and the drop has not saved him much when filling up.

“A drop of 20 cents saves me around $2.40 on a fill-up ... not too much difference,” Grubb said.

Senior Elena Panteleeva expressed much the same sentiment. Panteleeva said she did not realize the gas prices had dropped until someone told her. She said she hardly ever fills her gas tank because of the expense and because she prefers to know how much she spends on gas each week.

“I never fill up because I don’t like paying more than $20 for gas at a time,” she said.
She added that filling her tank is never a financial strain but she wasn’t fond of putting too much cash toward gas.

“Sometimes I think I spend too much on gas when I could be doing better things with my money,” she said.

Gas prices continued to hold through the week following the initial report. According to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report, average regular gas prices for the state of Indiana on Wednesday remained at $3.382