AAA: Gas prices steady in R.I., rise in Mass.

PROVIDENCE – “The average price of gasoline in Rhode Island is unchanged this week,” after falling last week for the first time this year, Lloyd P. Alpert, AAA Southern New England’s senior vice president for public and government affairs, wrote today in the group’s weekly fuel-price report.
The auto club’s March 2 survey found the average price of self-serve, unleaded regular at Ocean State stations was steady at $1.969 per gallon. Although unchanged from a week ago – and a 2 cent decline from Feb. 16, when local stations reported their seventh straight weekly increase in prices (READ MORE) – that represented a 32 cent increase from Dec. 29. But the local average was still $2.14 below July’s record high of $4.109 per gallon and $1.16 less than Rhode Island’s year-ago price of $3.129.
Meanwhile, “the price of gasoline in Massachusetts has risen this week,” ending a similar one-week decline, according to Arthur Kinsman, AAA’s local director of government affairs. The average self-serve price of unleaded regular in the state this week was $1.879 per gallon, an increase of 2 cents from the auto club’s Feb. 23 survey, although still 1 cent short of the Feb. 16 average price. That left the Bay State’s average price at $1.20 below the year-ago average of $3.079.
Nationwide, the average self-serve price of regular gasoline rose 2 cents over the past week to $1.939 per gallon after falling 3 cents to $1.919 in the week ended Feb. 23 and rising 4 cents each in the weeks ended Feb. 16 and Feb. 9.
At stations in Rhode Island this week, self-serve prices for unleaded regular gasoline had a 15-cent range, from a low of $1.919 to a high of $2.069 per gallon. Similar ranges were seen for most other grades of fuel, which had average self-serve prices of $2.109 per gallon for midgrade unleaded, $2.219 for premium unleaded gasoline and $2.449 for diesel.
AAA Southern New England is a nonprofit auto club providing travel, insurance, finance and auto-related services to more than 2 million local members with 34 offices in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. To find the most up-to-date self-service and full-service gasoline prices in a given area, go to www.AAA.com and click on Gas Saving Tips & Tools.