Gas Prices

NEW YORK — A sharp decline in the price of oil this month is making gasoline cheaper at a time of year when it typically gets more expensive. It’s a relief to motorists and business owners and a positive development for the economy.

Over the past three weeks, the price of oil has fallen by 9 percent to $89 a barrel. That has helped extend a slide in gasoline prices that began in late February. Nationwide, average retail prices have fallen by 27 cents per gallon, or 7 percent, since Feb. 27, to $3.52 per gallon. Analysts say pump prices could fall another 20 cents over the next two months.

DALLAS — The average gasoline pump price fell during March for the first time in 10 years, said AAA, the nation’s largest motoring organization.

The national average today is $3.63 a gallon, compared with $3.92 a year earlier, AAA said. Prices fell 15 cents in March, and the average should remain less expensive than last spring, Heathrow, Fla.-based AAA said.

SALT LAKE CITY — Sen. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, said he sees no movement for state lawmakers to potentially raise the state gas tax as a means of funding transportation projects.

“There’s been discussion about the gas tax, but I don’t think it’s been received too well,” Adams said.

Adams, who chairs a key transportation committee, said the 24.5-cent tax the state imposes on each gallon of gasoline purchased has not increased in value with inflation. Still he doesn’t see a push to index it to inflation or to raise it.

OGDEN — Fill up while you can; Utah now has the lowest gas prices in the country.

HOUSTON - U.S. motorists paid record high prices for gasoline in 2012, as severe weather and political tensions drove up the cost of fuel.

OGDEN — Record gas prices won’t stop people from going “over the river and through the woods” this Thanksgiving season.

Although gas prices in the state have dropped by more than 12 cents a gallon from what they were a month ago, an estimate of where they will be on Thursday — $3.63 per gallon — represents the highest average gas price ever seen in Utah on Thanksgiving, according to AAA.

NEW YORK - The New York attorney general’s office is looking into whether gasoline offered through the Craigslist website for as much as $8 a gallon is legal as motorists cope with retail shortages after Hurricane Sandy.