Pipeline explosion boosts local gas prices,
The average price of gas in Chattanooga rose nearly 3 cents per gallon over the past week following last Monday’s explosion in Alabama along the Colonial Pipeline that supplies nearly half of the fuel supplies to the East Coast.
But as Chattanoogans head to the polls today, local gas prices are still more than 38 percent lower than they were four years ago during the previous presidential election.
A survey released Monday by GasBuddy. com of 170 local service stations found the average price of gas in Chattanooga at the start of the week was $1.97 per gallon, up 2.9 cents per gallon from a week earlier.
Local gas prices rose far more than the national average increase of a half a cent per gallon during the past week. But Chattanooga gas prices, on average, are still 24 cents per gallon below the U.S. average of $2.21 per gallon, according to the online gas price web site GasBuddy.com.
Local gas prices also should ease some this week after Colonial Pipeline restarted its primary gasoline line Sunday morning, six days after the explosion in Shelby County, Ala. killed one worker, injured four others and sparked a fire that burned for days within the pipe.
Colonial reactivated the line at 5:45 a.m. Sunday after crews replaced the segment of pipe damaged in the explosion. Colonial said Sunday it would “take several days for the fuel delivery supply chain to return to normal,” but gas prices appear to have already begun to fall in Chattanooga on Monday, dropping to as low as $1.82 per gallon at a Citigo station in Hixson.
In addition to the restoration of gas deliveries from Colonial, November is typically a month in which gas prices are stable or decline slightly.
“If there’s one thing to be excited about for November it’s that gas prices in the last five of them have not risen nationally,” said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com. “Better yet, over the same time frame, gas prices nationally have averaged a modest 12-cent decline from start to finish.”
Despite an uptick in oil prices on Monday, the sharp decline in global crude oil prices last week should help keep gas prices lower this fall, according to AAA analysts.
“Wholesale gasoline prices fell at an incredible rate last week, dropping 20 cents in the Gulf Coast market,” said AAA spokesman Mark Jenkins.
Such prices should continue to keep prices down at the pump.
Chattanooga gas prices started this week 0.3 cents per gallon lower than the same day one year ago and are 12.1 cents per gallon lower than a month ago.
Four years ago when voters last went to the polls for a presidential election, gas prices in Chattanooga averaged $3.20 per gallon, or $1.23 per gallon more than the current price.
But DeHaan said whomever is elected the next president probably won’t be as influential on gas prices as is OPEC or other global market forces.
“While there may be more excitement as America heads to the polls this week, it’s important to dispel the myth: presidential elections do not affect gas prices,” he said. “Whomever is our next Commander-in-Chief, we could see a change to previous energy policy which could have a negligible impact on gasoline prices, but more focus will be on OPEC’s coming decision to follow through on cutting oil output.”