AAA: Local gas prices again edge higher

PROVIDENCE – “The average price of gasoline in Rhode Island has reached the $1.90 mark, after rising for the fifth consecutive week,” 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 Feb. 2 survey found that self-serve, unleaded regular was selling for an average of $1.849 per gallon at Ocean State stations. That represented an increase of 6 cents compared with Jan. 26 (READ MORE) and 26 cents over the five weeks since Dec. 29. But the local average was still $2.26 below July’s record high of $4.109 per gallon and $1.13 less than Rhode Island’s year-ago price of $3.039.
In neighboring Massachusetts, gasoline prices rose for the fourth consecutive week. The average self-serve price of unleaded regular in this week’s survey increased 3 cents to $1.829 per gallon, to 20 cents above its price four weeks ago. But that still left the Bay State price at $1.15 below the year-ago average of $2.979.
Nationwide this week, the average self-serve price of regular gasoline rose 4 cents over the past week to $1.889, after holding steady the week before at $1.849.
Meanwhile, at stations in Rhode Island, the range in self-serve prices for unleaded regular narrowed to 16 cents today from 21 cents a week ago. Prices ranged from a low of $1.839 to a high of $1.999. Wider ranges were seen for other grades of fuel, which had average self-serve prices of $2.019 per gallon for midgrade unleaded (up 4 cents per gallon), $2.149 for premium unleaded gasoline (up 4 cents) and $2.579 for diesel (up 1 cent).
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.