PROVIDENCE – “Gasoline prices in Rhode Island are unchanged as travelers head out for their holiday trips,” ending their 13-week decline, AAA Southern New England said today in its weekly fuel-price report.
The nonprofit auto club’s Dec. 22 survey found that the average price of self-serve, regular unleaded gasoline at Ocean State stations held steady at $1.689 per gallon, the same as in last week’s survey, 7 cents less than on Dec. 8 and 14 cents less than on Dec. 1. (READ MORE) Today’s Rhode Island average also was $2.48 below the record high of $4.109 per gallon recorded in AAA’s July 7 weekly survey (READ MORE) and $1.38 below the year-ago average of $3.069 per gallon.
In neighboring Massachusetts, prices fell for a 14th straight week, leaving Bay State residents paying an average of $1.659 per gallon for self-serve regular. That was down 1 cent over the past seven days, 9 cents over the past two weeks and 15 cents since the beginning of the month. Today’s price was $2.43 below the state’s July 7 record of $4.089 and $1.35 below the year-ago average of $3.009, AAA said.
Prices in both states remained at or near five-year lows, the auto club added.
At Rhode Island stations this week, self-serve prices for unleaded regular had a range of 20 cents, somewhat narrower than the 23-cent range of a week ago. Today’s prices ran from a low of $1.599 to a high of $1.799, AAA said. Wider ranges were seen for other grades of fuel, which had average self-serve prices of $1.829 per gallon for midgrade unleaded (down 2 cents per gallon), $1.959 for premium unleaded gasoline (down 4 cents) and $2.629 for diesel (down 6 cents).
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.
