D. Gilson is a writer and author of essays, poetry, and scholarship that explore the relationship between popular culture, literature, sexuality, and memoir. His latest book is Jesus Freak, with Will Stockton, part of Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 Series. His other books include I Will Say This Exactly One Time and Crush. His first chapbook, Catch & Release, won the 2012 Robin Becker Prize from Seve...

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Jeffrey Johnson is a legal writer with a focus on personal injury. He has worked on personal injury and sovereign immunity litigation in addition to experience in family, estate, and criminal law. He earned a J.D. from the University of Baltimore and has appeared on legaladvice.com, themanifest.com, and vice.com.

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Reviewed by Jeffrey Johnson
Insurance Lawyer

UPDATED: Jan 19, 2021

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Gas prices came close to $4.00 a gallon this summer.
Gas prices came close to $4.00 a gallon this summer. (image by Reuters/Mike Blake)

Last week, we cheered on the nationwide drop in gas pricing, but even with the declines of the previous week, we were still left wondering why the cost of filling up our cars continued to be so high, with motorists forking over an average of $3.60 per gallon.

This week, the average cost of a gallon of regular unleaded has fallen to $3.54 in the United States.

And while we’ll admit we’re still not satisfied, we are happy to see that we’ve experienced another week of declines, with some very lucky parts of the nation seeing gasoline prices under $3.00 a gallon. The big winners of the week, according to GasBuddy.com. were North Dakota ($0.21 decline), Indiana ($0.18 decline) and Michigan ($0.176 decline).

But even though nationwide averages are down, some states ended the week as losers. Hawaii ($0.09 rise), Montana ($0.061 rise) and Wyoming ($0.053 rise) all saw higher gas prices.

Analysts believe the generally uncertain economic trends that have seen losses in just about every single investment out there are part of the reason for the decline in oil prices, now just at $78 a barrel.

Patrick DeHaan, a senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy says he expects another week of dropping prices. For those who drive cars that use diesel, DeHaan says you can expect a drop between $0.10-$0.25 per gallon over the next couple of weeks.

We hope these predictions of lower prices are dead on, and that fuel prices keep falling across the United States. We can’t think of a better Christmas gift than a nationwide average of a gallon of unleaded that’s below $3.00 a gallon.